Irish navy seizes vast cocaine haul on yacht

Irish navy seizes vast cocaine haul on yacht

Thursday, September 25, 2014 12:29 am


Cocaine reported to have a street value of up to 80 million euros ($102 million), about N1.8billion, was discovered on a yacht off Ireland, authorities said Wednesday, in what is believed to be one of the biggest drug seizures in Europe this year.

The Irish police and navy boarded the yacht, the Makayabella, in the early hours of Tuesday and discovered “a significant quantity of suspected controlled drugs” on board, police said.

The cocaine haul weighed in at about a ton, media reports said.

Police photographs showed the pleasure yacht flying two white sails as it was approached by a navy vessel.

Three crew members were on board the yacht when it was stopped off the south west coast of Ireland. It was reported to have crossed the atlantic ocean and was on route to Wales.

The swoop was planned after intelligence provided by British, French and Portugal-based authorities, the police statement said.


Join The Conversation

What do you think?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.