Seven men charged over Ireland's biggest drugs haul due in court 

The case involves the dramatic operation whereby warning shots were fired before the elite Army Ranger Wing descended from circling helicopters to storm the MV Matthew off the Cork coast

Some 2.25 tonnes of cocaine with an estimated value of more than €157m was uncovered and seized from the he cargo ship, MV Matthew in September 2023. File picture: Denis Minihane

Seven men charged in connection with the largest seizure of cocaine in the history of the State are due before the three-judge, non-jury Special Criminal Court in Dublin on Monday.

Ukrainians Mykhailo Gavryk, aged 32, Vitaliy Vlasoi, aged 32, Vitaliy Lapa, aged 61; Iranians Soheil Jelveh, aged 51, and Saeid Hassani, aged 39; Dutch national Cumali Ozgen, aged 49, and Filipino Harold Estoesta, aged 31, are due before the court in Dublin today.

The trial is expected to take four months. A date is also to be set on Monday for the sentencing of Jamie Harbron, 31, in connection with the record seizure.

Mr Harbron was airlifted off a fishing trawler along with fellow accused Vitaliy Lapa, 61 of no fixed address, after it ran aground on a sandbar off the Wexford coast in September 2023. The fishing boat, called the Castlemore, had been bought days previously in Castletownbere, West Cork.

Meanwhile, the State was watching a Panamanian registered bulk cargo vessel, the MV Matthew, which had been operating suspiciously off the south coast.

In a dramatic operation, warning shots were fired before the elite Army Ranger Wing descended from circling helicopters to storm the MV Matthew, off the Cork coast. The ship was brought back to Cork Harbour under armed escort.

Gardaí later revealed that some 2.25 tonnes of cocaine with an estimated value of more than €157m was uncovered and seized from the 190-metre-long, 32-metre-wide ship.

Jamie Harbron

Mr Harbron, with an address listed at 26 South Avenue, Billingham, Stockton on Tees, UK, pleaded guilty to two charges last month.

Mr Harbron pleaded guilty that on a date between 21 September and 25 September 2023, he attempted to have cocaine in his possession for the purpose of sale or supply, an offence under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

Mr Harbron is charged with a further offence that he contributed to an activity intending or being reckless as to whether such activity could facilitate an organised crime group in the commission of a serious offence.

The MV Matthew has cost the State €100,000 every week to maintain since it was seized in September 2023. The State has paid €5.3m to maintain the ship between September 26, 2023, and October 2024, a court heard late last year.