Another 500 Million Drug Haul

Biggins

Just watching the 6 news.
Gardi have just caught 3 people bringing in another haul of drugs estimated at 500 million.
This is the latest huge shipment and the second one lately that is about the half a billion mark.

I have a genuine question.
What makes Ireland such a (frequent) target for bringing in such huge quantities?
I know Ireland has a huge drug problem but that much?

Holy crap!

News link: http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/1106/drugs.html

Turd Ferguson

And another thread...

Biggins

Turd Ferguson wrote: »

And another thread...

Didn't see the others. Apologies.

Mods, feel free to delete.
(maybe someone could still explain if our Irish drug problem is really that much in one of the other threads!)

kraggy

Biggins wrote: »

Didn't see the others.

Mods, feel free to delete.
(maybe someone could still explain if our Irish drug problem is really that much in one of the other threads!)

99% of that coke would've been for the UK and Europe.

We're seen as a soft touch from a policing point of view so Ireland is their first port of call when coming from the Carribean or South America.

We have a habit but we're not that bad.

Tabnabs

In the back of a van or car over the "border" into the North, on a ferry over to Scotland and down to England and on via ferry or chunnel.

Fair play to the lads for pulling off a massive operation.

Biggins

Given that this is just the tip of the iceberg in regards to actually catching the drugs being smuggled in and the drugs being able to slip by undetected, surely it would make sence for the countries of Europe to contribute some vessels occassionally to safeguard our west coast lines?

I know they (clearly) share intelligence info, an occasional (with paperwork/permission) additional detection vessel surely wouldn't go amiss!

dr.bollocko

1 and a half tonnes of coke.
Thats 1 million 5 hundred thousand grams.
Which is, if I am not mistaken 33 euro 33 cent a gram.
Wow the garda would be good dealers to know.
Unless my maths are wrong.

Biggins

dr.bollocko wrote: »

1 and a half tonnes of coke.
Thats 1 million 5 hundred thousand grams.
Which is, if I am not mistaken 33 euro 33 cent a gram.
Wow the garda would be good dealers to know.
Unless my maths are wrong.

Does that take into account that the drugs will then be filtered down with other crap to make it stretch more quantity-wise?

dr.bollocko

Biggins wrote: »

Does that take into account that the drugs will then be filtered down with other crap to make it stretch more quantity-wise?

One has to wonder, but my thinking was that as far as I know 50 quid a gram would be a lot more like street value?

Keith186

dr.bollocko wrote: »

One has to wonder, but my thinking was that as far as I know 50 quid a gram would be a lot more like street value?

Would be more like €70/80 usually.

€500m divided by 1.5m grams is €333 per gram which is more like what gardai value drugs at.

They always overvalue ecstasy and cannabis aswell by a significant amount.
One guy got caught with 1,500 or so pills and they tried to lock him up for mandatory 10 year sentence cos street value was over €12,700 but he argued that the street value is only €3/4 (its actually less in some cases) a pill which would mean a much shorter sentence. Wonder how he got on actually?

Good catch either way for the coastguard!

dr.bollocko

Thank you.
Too many zeros man. I thought I was going mental. Knew the police always over estimated these things.

Steyr

Well done to the Gardai,Cutoms especially the Irish Navy. she was boarded and taken into custody 200miles out by Irish Navy personnel, well done to all involved.

J.S. Pill

Keith186 wrote: »

Would be more like €70/80 usually.

€500m divided by 1.5m grams is €333 per gram which is more like what gardai value drugs at.

They always overvalue ecstasy and cannabis aswell by a significant amount.
One guy got caught with 1,500 or so pills and they tried to lock him up for mandatory 10 year sentence cos street value was over €12,700 but he argued that the street value is only €3/4 (its actually less in some cases) a pill which would mean a much shorter sentence. Wonder how he got on actually?

Good catch either way for the coastguard!

Don't forget that that €70/80 gram of 'cocaine' won't actually contain a gram of cocaine so the €333 figure might not be too far off the mark.

Biggins

Steyr wrote: »

Well done to the Gardai, Customs especially the Irish Navy. she was boarded and taken into custody 200miles out by Irish Navy personnel, well done to all involved.

Aye and to those also that will probably be never publicly be acknowledged for the secret work they do in the background.

wandatowell

Ya fairplay to the Naval Service, dont get anywhere near the recognition they deserve for the work they do.

RandolphEsq

Apparently it was the same haul as last year they just padded it up more and got 3 hobos to sit on a yacht of the coast of Ireland to look as if they were smuggling it into the country

Four-Too

They'll be forever takin in these drug seisures...forever. What is the future?

Ourlad

It wont be a white christmas this year

skelliser

Its gone up to 700 million euros worth according to the radio

Fratton Fred

This is a good job and all that, apparantly the ship got tracked all the ay from the caribbean. The NS picked it up a long way out, I wonder if they wanted to get it before the french navy did.

It looks like the smugglers see Ireland as a soft touch, I hope this doesn't add fuel to the UK's plans to bring in border controls between Britian and Ireland.

andrewh5

Four-Too wrote: »

They'll be forever takin in these drug seisures...forever. What is the future?

The death penalty for those caught might be a good deterrent. They are scum.

ednwireland

surely thats solved the gov. financial problems ?

blackbox

Does anyone know what happens to the stuff?

Is there any legitimate way for the state to get value from this seized material?

Can it be sold to pharmaceutical companies for refinement into medical drugs, realising some funds for the gardai/navy?

Biggins

blackbox wrote: »

Does anyone know what happens to the stuff?

Once it has been used as evidence in court, it goes to a furnace somewhere in Ireland as has previous seizures.

Darragh29

What I can't understand is why they don't tow/trawl the drugs in some kind of device that they would tow, just below the waterline maybe 2 miles behind them (obviously fit it with a GPS tracking device), so when they think they are being boarded for a search, they can just untie the rope and put some distance between them and their cargo, their cargo would float just below the surface, out of sight but could be recovered by the GPS system afterwards. Then when the boat gets the all clear, go back for the cargo and on you go!

Give the Governor a Hurrpmh! :D:D

Fratton Fred

Darragh29 wrote: »

What I can't understand is why they don't tow/trawl the drugs in some kind of device that they would tow, just below the waterline maybe 2 miles behind them (obviously fit it with a GPS tracking device), so when they think they are being boarded for a search, they can just untie the rope and put some distance between them and their cargo, their cargo would float just below the surface, out of sight but could be recovered by the GPS system afterwards. Then when the boat gets the all clear, go back for the cargo and on you go!

Give the Governor a Hurrpmh! :D:D

err, this would be the equivelant of towing a ford Focus underwater behind a sailing boat.

They may not get caught, but they would probably die of starvation in the 6 years it would take to sail the Atlantic:P

Biggins

Fratton Fred wrote: »

err, this would be the equivelant of towing a ford Focus underwater behind a sailing boat.

They may not get caught, but they would probably die of starvation in the 6 years it would take to sail the Atlantic:P

...added to that, there might be something (Russian sub!) that might obstruct the object being towed, it might get caught in something, get attacked by fish, etc.

Nice idea but not a real viable option.

Pharcyde

Didn't Howard Marks try this as well? He got it to work to a certain extent but given that he ended up buying a submarine instead, I'm guessing it was not without it's flaws?

Run_to_da_hills

blackbox wrote: »

Does anyone know what happens to the stuff?

Is there any legitimate way for the state to get value from this seized material?

Can it be sold to pharmaceutical companies for refinement into medical drugs, realising some funds for the gardai/navy?

Yes, it is to be commandeered by the HSE and handed out to the pharmaceutical companies to be made into tablets for our pensioners with free medical cards. It will save them a fortune

Darragh29

Fratton Fred wrote: »

err, this would be the equivelant of towing a ford Focus underwater behind a sailing boat.

They may not get caught, but they would probably die of starvation in the 6 years it would take to sail the Atlantic:P

I'm sure a 1 Billion Euro Ford Focus could be streamlined a bit and fitted with a bigger engine!!!

Darragh29

Biggins wrote: »

...added to that, there might be something (Russian sub!) that might obstruct the object being towed, it might get caught in something, get attacked by fish, etc.

Nice idea but not a real viable option.

Point taken! So give it a propulsion system of its own and a wireless communication set-up!

How on earth they are still sending this stuff across the ocean in this manner just amazes me! If the yanks can fly a pilotlesss predator drone along the Afghan/Pakistan border and take out 22 Taliban, by a "pilot" sitting inside a mountain in Nevada, what are these guys at!?!?!

Gu3rr1lla

dont worry get yer ID cards and CCTV cameras. problem - reaction - solution.

Biggins

Maybe we should buy our own sub to torpedo them! :eek:

Manic Moran

Darragh29 wrote: »

How on earth they are still sending this stuff across the ocean in this manner just amazes me! If the yanks can fly a pilotlesss predator drone along the Afghan/Pakistan border and take out 22 Taliban, by a "pilot" sitting inside a mountain in Nevada, what are these guys at!?!?!

US is busy enough with its own drugs problem. US Coast Guard seized some 200 tons last year, including 17 tons in one single haul on a Panamanian ship. They also are facing the problems of trying to track down submarines and semi-submersibles. I don't think the Irish naval service can do anything about a submarine.

NTM

Run_to_da_hills

Just reading the Indo on this. I can't understand how stupid these guys are. With the intelligence out there particularly from the UK they were sitting ducks from the minute they left the port ie GPS tracking, Cell and Sat phone tapping, etc.

You would think that they would tow a remote controlled fiberglass drone that they could release and drop if they had any suspicion of a raid. At least they wouldn't be caught with the stuff.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/storm-forced-swoop-on-8364675m-drug-boat-1528738.html

mikemac

Fair play to the authorities on their joint venture.

Saw this on the news loading the haul into an Enterprise rent a van.
Maybe it's just me but I cringed watching that.

There must have been a van available from the Navy, customs or the Gardai surely?
Why did they have to rent a van?

Looked amateurish imo. In the report you see the modern customs boat and then you see the officals using Enterprise rent a van.