Irish Naval Service at forefront in battle against 'narco' submarines

LÉ William Butler Yeats: Michael O'Sullivan, the executive director of the EU Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre — Narcotics (MAOC-N), said Europe will be 'flying blind' if the Irish Naval Service and the Air Corps do not deploy their ships and their planes to track vessels.

The Irish Naval Service has been warned by a top EU official that it faces a “game-changer” in drug trafficking with the use by cartels of “narco submarines” to transport narcotics into Europe.

Michael O’Sullivan said the first-ever discovery in Europe of semi-submersibles, sent across the Atlantic by South American drug lords, also poses a security threat with the potential the vessels could be used by terrorists to carry and deploy explosives.