Arrests due after massive haul of 'charcoal' cocaine 

€35m worth of cocaine was seized inside two containers in Rotterdam and transferred to Ireland with the help of the Irish navy

The cocaine was concealed in bags of coal. Picture: Gardaí

Colombian traffickers are constantly engineering covert ways to smuggle cocaine into Europe and “have no problems with budgets”, a top EU drug officer has said.

Michael O’Sullivan, head of the EU Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre – Narcotics (MAOC-N), said that if these traffickers can send a “narco-submarine” across the Atlantic they have no problem “painting cocaine black” and extracting the drug afterwards.

He was commenting after gardaí displayed half a tonne of ‘charcoal’ cocaine they believe an Irish organised crime group attempted to smuggle into the country.

The haul, the biggest bound for Ireland in many years, has an estimated street value of €35m.

The cocaine was smuggled in two large shipping containers from South America to Rotterdam, where it was intercepted by Dutch authorities.

It was seized inside two containers in Rotterdam by Dutch authorities on foot of Garda intelligence. Last weekend, the two containers were transferred into the possession of gardaí with the assistance of the Irish navy.

2,000 bags of charcoal

A Garda statement said the containers housed up to 2,000 bags of charcoal, but checks by the Customs mobile X-ray scanner and Garda dogs flagged suspicions and Forensic Science Ireland confirmed the presence of cocaine.

The cocaine would have been extracted by a trained specialist, most likely flown into the country.

The Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau is leading the investigation.

The Garda statement said: “It is anticipated a number of suspects will be arrested in the near future.” 

Mr O’Sullivan, a former Garda assistant commissioner, said the EU cocaine market was valued at €9bn in 2017, but he believed it was worth €13-€14bn now.

“If you have a €14bn market in Europe and you are sitting on a mountain of coke in South America, you will use every possible means and expertise to get it in.” 

Referencing the narco submarine seized off Spain in November 2019, he said: “If these people can build a submarine and send it for 23 days across the Atlantic and put 2.5 tonnes on it and almost get it home – if they can do that, getting coke and painting it black, red or green and putting it in a container is not challenging.

We have seen cocaine in the lining of containers, in inaccessible places on ships, we have seen it under ships, we have seized it in oranges, in cans, you name it.” 

He said: “Engineering covert ways of getting cocaine into Europe is what they do. If they can’t get it across the seas, they will get it in under the seas or in the sky. They have huge resources, they have no problems with budgets. They are constantly scheming ways to get it across.” 

An elaborate cocaine extraction laboratory was discovered by gardaí in West Cork in November 2017.