Cocaine cargo ship must have made multiple drop-offs before Ireland, expert says

The former Navy Commander said the Naval Service was lucky Tuesday's operation went well as the navy could command just one ship

The MV Matthew berthed at Marino Point, Cork, on Wednesday. Eugene Ryan, former Navy Commander and founding member of international drug trafficking surveillance centre MAOC(N), said that the 190m bulk cargo vessel would hold significantly more drugs than the quantity seized so far, but arrived here largely empty. Picture: Dan Linehan

The cocaine cargo ship at the centre of Ireland's biggest ever drug bust may have been dropping drugs off at locations all the way up from the Mid-Atlantic to Ireland, a drug-trafficking surveillance expert has said.

Eugene Ryan, former Navy Commander and founding member of international drug trafficking surveillance centre MAOC(N), said that the 190m bulk cargo vessel would hold significantly more drugs than the quantity seized so far, but arrived here largely empty.

“You can be sure that a ship as big as that had a lot more than two tonnes [of cocaine]," Mr Ryan said.

“I'd say we were the last drop. I can guarantee you from my experience that that vessel was not doing just one job off Ireland. She had had previous jobs on the way.

“A big bulk carrier, it costs tens of thousands of euro a day to keep her at sea on fuel alone. This one came from Willemstad in Curaçao, which is a Dutch protectorate just north of Venezuela. She wouldn't come up from Willemstad to do just one job.

“And if you look at her coming into Cork harbour, she was light in the water. She had no cargo. 

I'd say she was dropping stuff off all the way up from the mid-Atlantic, right up to the Irish coast. I've never seen, in all my time, a big bulk carrier like her acting as a mothership.

Tuesday’s historic cocaine interception off the Cork coast — in which elite soldiers from the Army Ranger Wing, armed with guns, fast-roped onto the drug-trafficking cargo ship in high winds and choppy seas — was a very proud day for the Defence Forces, Mr Ryan said.

It is the largest cocaine seizure in the history of the State at more than an estimated 2.25 tonnes and exceeds the two previous records — of around 1.5 and 1.8 tonnes — made in 2007 and 2008 off the Cork coast.

Mr Ryan led these major maritime drug busts in the Dunlough Bay and Dances With Waves seizures, both in West Cork waters, worth a combined €1.3bn.

He noted similarities in Tuesday's bust with the Dances With Waves seizure in which a yacht carrying 1.5 tonnes of cocaine was intercepted off Castletownbere in West Cork, with the drugs in both cases coming via Venezuela.

The MV Matthew passing Passage West, Cork, on Tuesday. Eugene Ryan said the container ship intercepted on Tuesday "came from Curaçao, which is north of Venezuela. And Venezuela, the coastline there, is hugely corrupt." Picture: Dan Linehan

“She [the container ship intercepted on Tuesday] came from Curaçao, which is north of Venezuela. And Venezuela, the coastline there, is hugely corrupt.

"All the stuff in Dances with Waves came from Venezuela. So the trends in this one are very similar."

But the navy commanded three ships for the interception of that one yacht, he pointed out, while in Tuesday’s seizure off the Cork coast and a smaller fishing vessel off Wexford — the navy could command just one ship due to falling staff numbers.

“We are so lucky that this went well. Because when you have naval operations at sea, you'll always have a back-up ship in case there's a breakdown or one of those rigid inflatable boats breaks down or capsizes or whatever. You'll always have a second ship to come in to help them. We didn't have that on this job."