"€50 million worth of cocaine recovered off Cork" - Customs officials

[Lunar Loops]

This from Belfast Telegraph:

"€50 million worth of cocaine recovered off Cork" - Customs officials

Monday, July 02, 2007

Customs officials believe they have made the largest drugs seizure in the history of the state.
Around forty large packages were recovered from the sea off the coast of West Cork today, containing what's believed to be half a tonne of cocaine.
Gardai, the coast guard and customs officers are now involved in a massive recovery operation in West Cork, which all began after a dinghy capsized a mile off shore this morning. Three men were on board - one of whom is still missing at sea.
Around forty bails were found floating in the water following the accident, and it's believed they contain cocaine worth around €50 million.
One was arrested in the area this afternoon - he's believed to be English and in his early twenties.
Gardai also towed away a van nearby, while the coastguard continued to search for the missing man.

Reputation Comments on this post:

good thread

[Trebor]

Every addict in the country will be flocking to the south coast today. Fucking morans calling for assistance with 50,000,000 worth of coke.

[enquirewithin]

I always wonder how they calculate the value in these stories. Still, a bale must be worth swimming out for!

[tayo]

yeah i was gonna say, is it if it were sold per half gram? ...or by the 8 ball? or by the ton?

[enquirewithin]

Woops! Seems to be a double post.

[Lunar Loops]

Originally Posted by enquirewithin

Woops! Seems to be a double post.

Ahh the yak sniffed it out just ahead of the others though....the news story that is as he doesn't have great sea legs. Estimates of the value of the haul now vary between €110 million and €300 million. Whatever, they are still looking and it is a massive haul. Certainly destined for the UK and possibly other areas of western Europe. The yak believes it was an English gang.

[Lunar Loops]

This from RTE News:

Man held over €105m drugs seizure

Tuesday, 3 July 2007 09:10
A man is being held by gardaí in connection with the discovery of packages of cocaine in the sea off west Cork.
Another man is in hospital in Bantry and gardaí are searching for two more men.
More than €105m of the drug has so far been recovered, which is the largest seizure of cocaine in the history of the State.
Naval and customs officers have recommenced the search of the waters around Dunlough Bay.
More than a tonne and a half of cocaine was removed from the waters off the west Cork coast yesterday.
So far no more bales of the drugs have been found this morning.
Gardaí are holding a case conference in Bantry as part of the investigation into the drug trafficking operation.
It appears to be the work of an English-based gang with most of the cocaine destined for the English market.
Customs officers believe more of the drug could still be found.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio's Morning Ireland, Seamus Lynch of the Revenue Customs Services said the search off the Cork coast is expected to last for several days.
He said the inflatable boat was lifted from the water late last night and was brought ashore at around 1am this morning.
Early indications suggest there are no drugs aboard, but a detailed search of the vessel had still to be carried out.
He also said that customs were investigating the possibility that the inflated vessel had met a larger yacht, converted fishing boat or ship to bring the cocaine into shallow waters.

[enquirewithin]

Ha, ha! Damned English!

[lulz]

Originally Posted by enquirewithin

I always wonder how they calculate the value in these stories. Still, a bale must be worth swimming out for!

At least in Ireland, the way they do it is ludicrous. If they seize a kilo of cocaine for example, they say "OK, well the price of 1 gram is about 100 euros" (even though it only costs half that on the street), and then calculate the value of the kilo by saying "well if 1 gram costs 100 euro, and we seized 1000 grams, then the kilo is worth 100,000 euros".

Sometimes in the papers you see absurd calculations, when they give the quantity seized and the "value" of that quantity. The math never adds up.

The higher they inflate the "value", the better they look.

[Nature Boy]

"Street" value means the entire amount of cash generated from a specific amount of a substance from dealer to dealer and so on to the eventual user. It doesn't actually represent how much one would buy something for on the street. That's why it's always a very high estimate.

[lulz]

Originally Posted by Nature Boy

"Street" value means the entire amount of cash generated from a specific amount of a substance from dealer to dealer and so on to the eventual user.

That's the kind of logic an economist would use, but I think you're giving the Gardai too much credit.

[podge]

Originally Posted by lulz

I think you're giving the Gardai too much credit.

Let them have it...they wont get much more from us.

Apparently there may be more of these bail's floating around ..... swim might go for a stroll along the coast.....

[Trebor]

At the moment it's a 310,000,000 million euro seizure, the largest in the history of the state.

Also, the thing about calculating values,

If a bar of hash worth 3 pigs was to be found, the street value would be calculated on the maxi,mum amount of bacon that could be made form these pigs. So, one bar costs nine rashers. Isn't there any way I can use monetary terms?

[Lunar Loops]

Originally Posted by Trebor

If a bar of hash worth 3 pigs was to be found, the street value would be calculated on the maxi,mum amount of bacon that could be made form these pigs. So, one bar costs nine rashers. Isn't there any way I can use monetary terms?

Pigs and rashers (not sure the whole world will know what rashers are mind; slices of bacon to those who don't know) as monetary currency, that's pure class Trebor. We could use potatoes and chips too, the more they are cut (the thinner the chip or rasher) the greater the street value when the local butcher or chipper sells them on. What about the special sauce deals though?

[springplain]

I would be very interested to know if this seizure has any affect at all on the cocaine market in the UK. I wonder if UK SWIMS may be able to alert the forum if any scarcity appears over the next few months?

[Nature Boy]

Originally Posted by lulz

That's the kind of logic an economist would use, but I think you're giving the Gardai too much credit.

Well that's the system they actually use regardless of their intellect. Of course there's probably some exaggeration along the way in order to secure convictions but it's that ballpark estimate anyway.

[Lunar Loops]

Here's an update on this story concerning the sentencing of the three men accused. It comes from the Breaking News section of The Independent on line (article link):

Hefty sentences handed down in Cork cocaine trial


Wednesday July 23 2008


Two 30-year-prison sentences and a 25-year sentence have been handed down to the three Englishmen involved in the country's biggest-ever cocaine seizure.
Judge Sean O Donnabhain said it was obvious that Martin Wanden, Joe Daly and Perry Wharrie were fully committed and dedicated to the drug-smuggling operation, which was at the top level of the scale.
It emerged in the sentencing hearing that Wharrie has a conviction for murder in the UK, while Wanden has a conviction in France for smuggling drugs and banned goods.
The three, who are all in their 40s, were convicted yesterday of charges relating to the seizure of €440m worth of cocaine from the sea at Dunlough Bay, west Cork, on July 2nd last year.

[Mr. Giraffe]

This thread is a rather nice illustration of how completely insane Garda valuations of drugs in this country actually is. The latest inflation, from 105 mil to 440 million is based on the fact that it was 75% pure, whereas street deals are usually 15% pure. This is believed to be the first time that the Gardai have used this argument to inflate the value. The press have rounded it off to half a billion, while a prominent RTE news report multiplied the already outrageous evaluation again to account for purity (nobody having told him that this was the reason for the increase in the first place), and told no-doubt horrified viewers that the nasty British men could have been done for something like 700 trillion quids worth of charlie.

I mean, the boyos weren't ever going to fall below the 13,000 mandatory minimum threshold, but the lynch mob mentality is troubling to behold.