Judge says drug traffickers underestimated alertness of West Cork community
International drug traffickers underestimated the high quality of gardaí and the alertness of a West Cork community, which together helped to foil a suspected attempt to smuggle more than €58m of cocaine through Ireland, a court has heard.
Seven men who pleaded guilty to conspiracy in the drug trafficking plot have been sentenced to a combined 70 years in prison.
The sophisticated conspiracy involved international criminal cells, including Dutch, Iranian and Spanish nationals, Judge Karen O’Connor said at sentencing at the Special Criminal Court.
Due to guilty pleas and various mitigating factors, their headline sentences were reduced from 18 years each to sentences of eight, 10, and 11 years.
A significant deterrent must be delivered for this type of offending, both globally and nationally, Judge O’Connor said. Drugs are a scourge that destroy lives, families and communities, she said.
“On a daily basis, our courts see the devastating impact of drugs on our society, their presence fuelled by the worst [..] criminality,” Judge O’Connor said.
“This court is struck by the audacity and brazen nature of the conspiracy, arriving at this quiet coastline assuming they would not be noticed, totally underestimating the diligence, neighbourliness, and alertness of people in coastal communities, people who notice suspicious activity taking place on their doorsteps.
“And the co-conspirators completely underestimated the quality of our law enforcement,” Judge O’Connor said.
The seven sentenced on Thursday were Dutch/Iranian national Kiumaars Ghabiri, aged 53, Spanish nationals Mario Angel Del Rio Sanz, aged 46, Angel Serran Padilla, aged 41, and Anuar Rahui Chairi, aged 43, Pedro Pablo Ojeda Ortega, aged 37, Juan Antonio Gallardo Barroso, aged 56, and Serbian national Aleksander Milic, aged 28.
Gardaí arrested the men in March last year during operations in the villages of Tragumna and Leap near Skibbereen in West Cork, where an off-road vehicle, camper van, articulated truck, and rigid inflatable boat (rib) were seized as part of the suspected drug smuggling operation.
The modified rib, with equipment painted black to avoid detection and powerful engines, set off from West Cork and tried to meet a Panama-flagged ship called the Cool Explorer off the British coast in March 2024, the State alleged.
That ship, a legitimate cargo vessel carrying legitimate cargo, was also believed to have been carrying at least 850kg of cocaine with a street value of between €58m and €59m, which later washed into beaches near the Danish town of Sjaellands Odde.
A GPS device attached to the cocaine matched the coordinates of the Cool Explorer.
In sentencing, Judge O’Connor said that all the defendants had “involved themselves in serious conspiracy to import controlled drugs into this jurisdiction".
This involved a very serious form of criminality and was a sophisticated operation with significant logistical and financial planning. It included “visits to the locus by way of reconnaissance as part of preparation for the conspiracy to take advantage of our coastal situation.”
During a routine garda checkpoint on February, 27, 2024 at Gully, Bandon, Co Cork, gardaí had noticed two men in a vehicle acting suspiciously.
A search of the vehicle uncovered a notepad containing the names of Airbnbs, and the time it would take to travel from each of them to piers at Rosscarbery in West Cork and a second pier called Dromadoon near Skibbereen.
On March 12, 2024, confidential information was received regarding suspicious activity at Tragumna pier in West Cork involving an articulated truck reversing down the slipway to a pier in the early morning.
A campervan, a Ford Transit, and a black Land Rover SUV were also observed near the location.
Suspecting a criminal drug trafficking operation, gardaí established a large surveillance operation monitoring the vehicles and people connected to them.
At 5.10am on March 14, 2024, a black rib speedboat was observed approaching Tragumna pier.
An articulated truck with a trailer reversed down the slipway.
Holdall bags were then transferred from the speedboat to the pier.
“An attempt was made to put the rib onto a trailer then back into the articulated truck. This was problematic,” Judge O’Connor said.
“The campervan left the pier just before 6.45am. The articulated truck had moved slightly up the slipway when gardaí carried out an interdiction.”
Six men were arrested and detained under the Misuse of Drugs Act and the vehicle was seized.
Minutes later at Tragumna pier, another four men were arrested.
The articulated truck and Land Rover Discovery were also seized.
“It was the prosecution’s case that the conspiracy involved the use of the rib to rendezvous with the Cool Explorer as the ship was passing close to the UK at which point an at-sea drop-off would occur,” said Judge O’Connor said.
Waypoints showed the rib travelling for almost 48 hours across the sea from West Cork towards the Cool Explorer off Britain with an effort to interdict its passage.
However, it appeared to have missed the alleged mothership and returned to Tragumna pier, landing at around 5am on March, 14, 2024.
“There was a weather warning in place, conditions would have been considerably rough,” Judge O’Connor said.
A campervan had been hired in Armagh from a legitimate business for the operation and was driven south for what was claimed would be “a family holiday in the Cork/Kerry area”.
The Land Rover used in the operation had been stolen in Glasgow in December 2023 and bore false registration plates. One of the accused, Ghabiri, was captured on CCTV driving the vehicle at a toll plaza in Watergrasshill, Cork. The articulated truck had transported the rib and bore Bulgarian registration plates, the court heard.
Nautical equipment and receipts for same were found in the campervan and Airbnbs.
It had been bought in Portsmouth in the UK, Decathlons in Dublin and Belfast, and a marine store in Cork city. It included high-end nautical clothing — dry suits, wet suits, helmets, and a large quantity of electrical devices.
Multiple mobile phones were seized, including satellite phones which can operate out at sea independent of any land masts.
Thermal imaging binoculars and GPS devices, Garmin devices, nine two-way radios and a control panel were also found. A WAM-108t, a high frequency detector known by law enforcement as a bug detector was also seized.
The rib had been modified in the Netherlands before it was brought to Ireland.
It was described in court as a ‘narcoboat’, a vessel specially modified for drug trafficking.
Photographs on the defendants’ phones showed some of them smiling together over dinner in the Netherlands and taking selfies on planes when then travelling on to Ireland.
Former Irish naval officer Gary Delaney surveyed the rib that was seized at Tragumna pier.
It was designed “to detect but not to be detected”, he said. A radar dome and pole and control panels, which are typically white, had been painted black.
While a vessel of that type would normally have lights to the front, sides and rear, this only had one light which was not very visible.
“Mr Delaney was of the view that ordinarily a vessel like this would have a VHS, a very high frequency radio on board and related antennae for emergencies and communications with the coastal service.
“But none of this was present on the rib.”
The rib had been fitted with a 300 horsepower Yamaha engine and a large quantity of fuel was on board. Waypoints found on a Garmin device were tracking the movement of the Cool Explorer, the court heard.
This was the suspected mothership which they missed during stormy weather in March 2024 in the hours before their arrest in West Cork.
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