Hezbollah and Dutch & Iranian gangs behind West Cork drug smuggling attempt

Thursday's events in the West Cork seaside village of Tragumna, above, and nearby Leap, culminated in a garda swoop on a jeep, an articulated lorry, and a camper van. File picture: Denis Scannell

A global drug trafficking ring run by Dutch and Iranian crime bosses — and most likely involving the Lebanese militant organisation Hezbollah — is suspected of being behind the failed attempt to import up to two tonnes of cocaine along the Cork coast.

Gardaí believe they have dismantled a major “logistics and landing” team organised by the ring after they arrested 10 suspects and seized a number of vehicles, including an articulated truck, in West Cork.

A range of security sources have said the depleted state of the Irish naval service — and the amount of media publicity around it — has drawn the attention of international traffickers, including South American cartels as well as European and Middle Eastern gangs. 

Sources said that these criminals assess Ireland as a “point of least resistance” into the lucrative European market. One source said: 

Ireland is being assessed by them as the point of least resistance due to the publicity over the last year and more about the lack of naval resources patrolling Irish-controlled waters.

“Hence they are coming this way.”

The Irish navy currently has just one ship out on patrol at all times, compared to four ships out on patrol less than eight years ago.

The dramatic events in the small seaside village of Tragumna, near Skibbereen, and the village of Leap, climaxed on Thursday when gardaí swooped on a jeep, an articulated lorry, and a camper van.

The 10 suspects arrested were detained under anti-gangland powers, and a rigid inflatable boat, still wet, was discovered inside the truck.

On Friday night at Bandon District Court, the 10 men — one from the North, six from Spain, two Dutch nationals, and one from Serbia — had their period of detention extended by 72 hours.

“Given the size of this team, the expertise of some of them, the assets they were using, the planning involved, and the resources they had at their disposal, we believe they could have been trying to land between 1.5 and up to two tonnes of cocaine to make all that effort viable,” a senior source said.

While the crew are being questioned, the hunt is on for the suspected mothership. No drugs have been recovered yet.

Up to 10 men are in custody following the garda operation in West Cork on Thursday triggered by a suspected drug smuggling operation onto a remote pier. 

Gardaí are also trying to establish if they interrupted the gang on a recce, or a test run, or if they pounced moments after an aborted smuggling operation.

A source said bad weather and heavy seas could have forced the gang to abandon their efforts, and the drugs could still be out there.

Preliminary searches have found “a large volume of telephones”, including satellite phones.

Equipment had been modified to increase its “stealth capability”, including having navigating equipment removed.

Some 43 telecommunication devices, including mobile phones, laptops, and other devices, were retrieved and more than 120 hours of CCTV footage is being examined by gardaí.

Security sources believe this failed attempt is just the latest in what is a regular supply of one- to two-tonne shipments of cocaine from South America to Ireland, with the bulk of it for onward transportation either through the North and into Britain, or to mainland Europe.

While investigators suspect Dutch and Iranian gangs are running this operation, they believe it is “highly likely” Hezbollah is also involved, as they control a large slice of the cocaine trafficking routes.

Hezbollah has deep and long-running connections in a number of South American countries in relation to firearms trafficking, money laundering, and drug trafficking.

Irish law enforcement agencies are continuing to investigate links between Hezbollah and Iranian gangs, and criminals associated with the Kinahan crime cartel, with the record 2.23 tonnes of cocaine seized off the Cork coast last September.

One security source said Ireland was being targeted for “tonnage loads by Iranian Hezbollah”.

Last September, the US Department of Treasury sanctioned three people and their South-American-based companies for conducting illicit financial activities for Hezbollah.

The department previously estimated that in 2018 Hezbollah earned $300m (€275m) from the drugs trade and other criminal activity — a figure estimated to have dramatically risen since then.