Latest news with #OperationPiano
Irish Daily Mirror
15 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Defence Forces hunted cocaine ship MV Matthew for five days
The Defence Forces operation to seize the MV Matthew came within feet of disaster – and only the skill of an Air Corps pilot saved the day. Sources say the Air Corps helicopter that flew an Army Ranger Wing team to seize the cocaine-laden freighter off the south coast came so close to the ship that its blades were within feet of large cranes on it. An officer who commanded the air mission told us the chopper would have crashed if any of its blades struck the giant yellow cranes. 'If we clip the blade we're gone,' he said. 'In the best case, we might get to ditch it onto the vessel, or ditch it into the sea. But it's not good.' Now, as eight men begin jail terms over the September 2023 plan to smuggle the drugs here on the freighter, we can reveal new details about the Defence Forces plan, called Operation Piano, in which the ARW, Naval Service and Air Corps combined to seize the ship – and the cocaine on board. We can reveal that: · The ARW team fast-roped 55 feet from the chopper onto the deck in heavy seas in seconds · One of the crew turned the ship hard left just as the ARW operators were roping down · The special forces unit seized control of the freighter in just five minutes · A Naval Service commander was planning to open fire on the ship after it refused lawful orders to stop, and · An Air Corps gunner in the chopper used a GPMG machine gun to provide cover to the ARW team as they stormed the ship. The three arms of the Defence Forces teamed up with Revenue Customs and Gardai to form a joint task force to take down the MV Matthew, a Panamanian registered freighter that had sailed across the Atlantic Ocean with 2,200 kilos of cocaine - worth €157 million. But Gardai and Customs had received international intelligence on the plot – and worked with the Defence Forces to foil it on September 26. Operation Piano started five days earlier, on Friday, September 22 when the captain of the Naval Service ship LÉ William B Yeats was summoned to a short notice meeting at its HQ at Haulbowline in Co Cork. He and his crew had just spent two weeks at sea – but were ordered back out again. He told us: 'I was briefed in broad terms about an impending counter narcotics operation that was expected to happen off the south coast of Ireland within a matter of days and I was given instructions to return the ship immediately to sea.' The Irish Mirror's Crime Writers Michael O'Toole and Paul Healy are writing a new weekly newsletter called Crime Ireland. Click here to sign up and get it delivered to your inbox every week Within 90 minutes, the 44 crew on the €71 million ship were ready and it headed out to the Irish Sea. They had received intelligence that the Matthew and a trawler called the Castlemore were planning to meet up in Irish waters. It was suspected that the Matthew was the mother ship and the plan was for it to link up with the smaller Castlemore and transfer a massive drugs consignment over to it – which would then land it on the south coast. On Saturday, the ship picked up gardai and customs officers and then headed to patrol the area of sea where investigators believed the hand over would take place. The following evening, Sunday, the LÉ WB Yeats monitored both vessels off the coast of Wexford. Officers saw the Castlemore loiter in the suspected drop off area for around an hour. The captain told us he believed that the Matthew had dropped the drugs into the sea and the Castlemore was searching for them. Then, at around 11pm, the captain received reports a trawler had run aground off the coast – and he realised it was the Castlemore. He then took part in an operation to rescue two men from the stricken trawler. A Coast Guard helicopter winched the men from the trawler and they were then brought to the WB Yeats, which transported them to Rosslare port. The Yeats spent much of Monday monitoring the grounded Castlemore as searches took place for drugs in the waters close to it. But at 1am on Tuesday, September 26, it was ordered to chase down the Matthew, which was now off the coast of Waterford. The Yeats caught up with the Matthew at 5am – and immediately started to interrogate the crew over the radio. The Matthew's captain, Iranian Soheil Jelveh, 51, had been airlifted the day before in a medical emergency, and the Yeats' captain had to deal with his second in command. The officer ordered the crew member to head to Cork – but the Matthew claimed it was having engine problems and needed 48 hours for repairs. After several hours, the second in command eventually agreed to the Irish demands and set sail for Cork. 'It looked like things were going our way,' the Irish captain said. But an hour later, it became clear that the MV Matthew was bluffing – and it had instead set a course for Sierra Leone in west Africa. The Irish officer said: 'It was apparent to me then that I was in hot pursuit of that ship. I was authorised to use force, if necessary, to get that vessel to comply with my instruction. Ultimately, I arrived at the decision that force needed to be used.' It was now around midday on Tuesday and the officer ordered his crew to fire warning shots in the air from Steyr 5.56mm assault rifles. The crew ignored those shots, so the captain ordered his personnel to fire more shots – but this time from the heavier calibre 7.62mm machinegun. The captain told us the MV Matthew crew begged for their lives – but still ignored his commands to head to Cork. He said: 'Some of the messages came back were words like 'don't, don't shoot. There's people here who are innocent. We have families at home, wives, children. We don't want to die. And please deescalate.' 'My response was always that they were responsible for the outcome of this action, that they had within their power to deescalate. I would have immediately backed off had I seen the results that we needed to. I imagine it got quite frantic on board. And just in the interactions between myself and the guy at the end of the radio, he was doing everything in his power to put me off the course of action that I was on.' But the Irish captain knew he had to be firm - and that he had the law on his side. He had three other weapons on board: a 12.7mm heavy machine gun, a 20mm cannon and a 76mm main gun. He said: 'I have the options of using the heavy machine gun and 20 millimetre and 76 millimetre weapons. They were the options that were available to me.' He adds he was planning on firing the warning shots gradually closer to the Matthew – and was ready to actually hit the vessel with what is called disabling fire, that would mean targeting the engine. He said: 'You begin stepping your shots closer to the vessel, and if you're into the realm of disabling shots, then you are trying your best to hit critical machinery that would disable the vessel and stop the vessel in its tracks, obviously mitigating against personal injury.' But the Irish captain then got an order to cease the warning shots as the Air Corps were flying an Army Ranger Wing unit to the Matthew – to assault it from the skies. The special forces unit was flown to the MV Matthew on board an Air Corps AW139 helicopter. The senior flyer who commanded the mission said the Air Corps provided a two planes – a PC-12 and a Casa – for overwatch, while approximately nine ARW operators were loaded into the AW139 helicopter and flown to Waterford airport. At 12.40pm, then Tánaiste and Minister for Defence Micheal Martin gave approval for the mission and the helicopter carrying the assault team lifted off at 1pm. The officer said: 'We got radar contact around 25 miles off the South West coast. We were updated then that warning shots were being fired by our naval colleagues who were trying to get (The MV Matthew) to stop. We have planned all along there was going to be a compliant boarding so we weren't anticipating the offensive nature.' But they then realised the Matthew was not following orders – and got ready to deliver the ARW team in a non-compliant landing. That meant positioning the helicopter so an ARW sniper and an Air Corps gunner using a GMPG machinegun were able to provide cover as the special forces team fast roped onto the ship from 55 feet. The officer said: 'We came in low. The swell was around four metres, the wind was around 20 knots and (MV Matthew) was going around 10-15 knots. We've got 35-40 knots coming across the deck as we're getting ready to put ropes on. The swell was pitching and rolling the vessel, which made it more challenging. 'The deck was very challenging. There were antennae, we'd high cranes left and right. It made it probably the highest and fast rope we've ever done onto a vessel. 'And at times we've just barely a small bit of rope on. So it's an extremely challenging and dangerous insertion.' He said the team would normally use a winch to deploy personnel onto a ship – but the ARW unit needed to get on quickly. And that meant using fast ropes which - combined with the closeness of the cranes and antennae as well as the weather – made the insertion extremely risky. And it became even more dangerous when a crew member on the Matthew turned the Matthew towards the helicopter while the fast rope was actually happening. The Air Corps officer said: 'Fast roping on land is extremely dangerous. But going out to ship in quite challenging maritime conditions with 35/40 knots across the deck, she's rolling and pitching with these two big masts that are very, very close and then they decide to turn into us. 'So we're constantly moving, trying to maintain our position on the deck. Once the guy goes on to the rope it's extremely dangerous, if he comes off at 50/55 feet, it's something not even worth thinking about.' He confirmed the AW139's blades were only a matter of feet from the cranes when the ARW team was fast roping onto the MV Matthew. Only the skill of the pilot prevented a catastrophe. The officer said: 'If we clip the blade we're gone. In the best case, we might get to ditch it onto the vessel, or ditch it into the sea. But it's not good.' The ARW team took a matter of seconds to rope onto the ship, a senior special forces commander told us. He revealed they had control of the ship within five minutes. The first operators to land on the ship raced to the bridge - the most important area of the vessel. He said: 'The priority will be to control the vessel. That means it can't be steered in a different direction. It can't be rammed into another vessel, or it can't be scuttled. 'We had full control within about five minutes of the first personnel being on the deck. ' He said he knew once the soldiers landed safely it was all over for the ship's crew. He said: 'We had full confidence that once we got the guys on to the deck, there wasn't going to be anything on the ship that they couldn't deal with. We've got really well trained people. Once we managed to get them onto the deck, it would be over.' Once the bridge was under the ARW control, operators realised some of the crew were trying to burn the cocaine in a lifeboat. The team ran over and used fire extinguishers to put out the blaze – and save the cocaine as evidence. And one of the ARW soldiers then took control of the massive freighter – and sailed it to Cork harbour, where gardai were waiting to board it. The senior ARW officer said: 'We have a lot of personnel who are dedicated to working in the maritime environment and they've got really specialist qualifications in that area. We had personnel on board that day who were able to take the ship under control and bring it into Cork.'
Irish Times
15 hours ago
- Irish Times
How the Defence Forces carried out its most daring operation in decades, with minimal resources
The crew of LÉ William Butler Yeats were looking forward to a relaxing weekend when the ship arrived in Haulbowline Naval base in Co Cork on the morning of September 22nd, 2023. The vessel had just completed a two-week maritime security patrol and was due to spend the next two days in port, allowing most of the crew a trip home to see family. Those plans were scuppered when, shortly after docking, the captain was summoned to the Naval Operations Command Centre. An Garda Síochána and Revenue, operating as part of a Joint Task Force, had received word of a massive drugs consignment about to land in Ireland aboard a bulk carrier called the MV Matthew, he was told. READ MORE The captain returned to the ship and briefed his crew. All leave was cancelled. The details of the interdiction of the MV Matthew, which led to the biggest drugs seizure by weight in the history of the State, were detailed in interviews with the military officers directly involved. These include the Yeats's captain, the leader of the Air Corps team and a senior member of the Army Ranger Wing (ARW) special operations unit, whose troops rappelled on to the moving vessel amid heavy swells while Storm Agnes bore down on the country. The Defence Forces has requested all those involved remain anonymous due to personnel security concerns. At the start of the mission, which would later be termed Operation Piano, the job of the Yeats was simply to keep Matthew under surveillance, along with a small fishing vessel called the Castlemore. The taskforce believed the Castlemore was planning to rendezvous with the Matthew off southern coast and take on the cocaine before ferrying it to Ireland. The plan was to let this play out before detaining the Castlemore after it brought the cocaine ashore. 'We know now that didn't happen,' said the naval captain. Instead, the Yeats would spend the next five days taking part in the most ambitious and dramatic operation in Irish naval history, during which it would serve as a warship, a search and rescue vessel and a makeshift prison. 'It was incredibly dynamic,' recalled the naval officer. 'You couldn't write it.' The eventual success of the operation was all the more remarkable given the extreme constraints on the Defence Forces. While previous major interdictions involved multiple warships, the Yeats was the only one available this time round. Military planners believed four helicopters would be required to guarantee success but just one was accessible – a Defence Forces helicopter assigned to an emergency air ambulance role which had to be recalled and pressed into service. After picking up a team of gardaí and customs officers, the Yeats sailed to a spot off the south coast where, according to Garda intelligence, the Matthew was to transfer its cargo to the Castlemore. The Yeats's job was to observe the transfer from a distance. The weather began to deteriorate rapidly, however – thanks to Storm Agnes and its 135kph winds – raising doubts the handover would happen at all. The MV Matthew being pursued The next night, the Castlemore finally arrived but there was no sign of the mother ship. The Yeats's captain could see on his screens that, instead of meeting the smaller vessel, the Matthew was sailing up the Irish Sea towards Dublin. After an hour, the fishing boat sailed back inland, leading authorities to believe it was going to shelter from the increasingly perilous weather at Kilmore Quay in Wexford. Instead, it sailed past Kilmore. It was becoming increasingly clear to the crew of the Yeats that they were not dealing with experienced seafarers. They were also having their own problems. The deteriorating weather made it increasingly difficult for their sensors to keep track of the boat. 'At one point, we lost radar contact with the vessel and we had to conduct a search over a couple of hours to regain radar contact,' the captain recalls. At 11pm, word came through that the Castlemore had run around on a sandbank, stranding its two-man crew. The Irish Coast Guard led the rescue operation while the Yeats hid over the horizon, ready to assist if needed. As weather conditions worsened, the Yeats was asked to bring the stricken smugglers ashore. The men were winched up in a Coastguard helicopter before being deposited on the naval ship. [ Hizbullah and Iran suspected of involvement in MV Matthew smuggling operation Opens in new window ] The suspects were housed on the vessel and given food and dry clothes, before being brought ashore the next morning and taken into Garda custody. No drugs were found during a subsequent search of the sandbank and the surrounding waters, meaning the cocaine must still have been aboard the Matthew. Now four days into the operation, the Yeats was ordered to sail at full speed towards the Matthew, which, by then, was near Rosslare. Back on land, the taskforce began to plan for the possibility of having to take the ship by force. The Matthew, a 190-metre long bulk carrier, was carrying almost no cargo, meaning it sat high in the water. This would make it extremely difficult for naval personnel in inflatable boats to gain access. Preliminary plans were drawn up for special operations troops to take the ship from the air. Specifically, the ARW's air assault section – which specialises in the insertion of troops and equipment via helicopter – would fast rope on to the Matthew before taking control of the bridge and securing the crew and cocaine. The ARW has conducted maritime assault training exercises on a yearly basis since 2009, usually involving a hijacked ferry scenario. This operation, however, had the potential to be significantly more dangerous. Just landing the team on a moving ship, crowded with cranes and cables, during heavy swells would require an immense amount of skill. The proposed ARW operation was put to one side as a contingency, while it was decided that the safest option, for the time being, was to somehow convince the crew of the Matthew to voluntarily bring the ship into port. At 5am, on September 26th, the Yeats intercepted the Matthew off the coast and ordered it to sail into Cork Habour. The Matthew responded that it had suffered engine failure and needed 48 hours to make repairs. By this stage, the situation on board the cargo ship was becoming increasingly chaotic as the crew realised their smuggling operation was a failure. After failing to rendezvous with the Castlemore, their criminal bosses in Dubai instructed them to put the cocaine in a lifeboat and prepare to land them ashore. Later, the crew were wrongly advised that the Irish authorities had no legal authority to board their vessel. It subsequently emerged in court the Dubai criminals were relaying legal advice from ChatGPT. By the 25th, the Matthew's Iranian captain, Soheil Jelveh, had had enough and made a distress call asking for an emergency medical evacuation. A short time later, he was winched on to a Coast Guard helicopter while carrying $40,000 in two suitcases. Jelveh was arrested by gardaí shortly after when he tried to leave hospital. This left Harold Estoesta, a 31-year-old Filipino and the ship's second in command, to attempt to stall the Yeats. The captain informed him over the radio, however, that he did not believe his story about engine failure. Partially-burned cocaine stash inside a lifeboat on the MV Matthew. Photograph: An Garda Síochána/PA Wire To everyone's surprise, Estoesta then appeared to comply with the Yeats's orders and set a course for Cork Harbour. 'Things kind of calmed down a small bit. It looked like things were going our way and that in the next couple of hours it would make landfall in Cork,' said the Irish naval captain. It was not to be. An hour later, the Matthew turned south and set a course for Sierra Leone. 'It was apparent to me then that I was in hot pursuit of that ship and that I was authorised to use force, if necessary, to get the vessel to comply with my instruction,' said the captain. Under Irish law, naval captains may fire across the bow of a fleeing ship to force it to comply. If this does not work, they may fire directly on the ship's engines. Such action is rarely required but not without precedent. For example, in 1985, LÉ Aisling fired about 600 rounds during a five-hour pursuit of a Spanish fishing vessel which refused to stop. The captain of the Yeats ordered his crew to fire several bursts in front of the Matthew, initially from assault rifles and then from mounted machine guns. As this went on, radio communications were becoming increasingly fraught. Estoesta pleaded with the Yeats to cease fire. The naval captain recalled him saying: 'There's people here who are innocent. We have families at home, wives, children. We don't want to die. Please de-escalate.' The captain replied that Estoesta was responsible for the outcome of the situation. 'From their point of view, I imagine it got quite frantic on board,' the officer said. Back on land, it had been decided the helicopter assault was the only viable option left. 'We prepped the aircraft. We got the weapons, loaded up, our armour and our personal weapons,' said the Air Corps Commander. Planners discussed the risk profile of the mission and at what point it would become too dangerous to continue. Personnel were also briefed by the Defence Forces legal section on the rules of engagement – in other words, where and when they were permitted to use lethal force. Just before 1pm on the 26th, then tánaiste and minister for defence Micheál Martin was briefed on the plan. He gave the go ahead and, 20 minutes later, an AW139 helicopter containing the ARW team took off from Waterford Airport and sped towards the Matthew. The plan envisaged the troops descending by rope on to the deck. Cover would be provided by an ARW sniper who would remain on the aircraft and an Air Corps door gunner operating a machine gun. Rescue crews sat in Rigid Hulled Inflatable Boats – known as Rhibs – aboard the Yeats, ready to deploy at a moment's notice if the helicopter had to ditch in the sea, while other sailors manned the ship's guns. As the helicopter approached, an Air Corps maritime patrol aircraft made a low pass over the vessel in a last-ditch effort to convince it to comply. Instead, the Matthew began to manoeuvre back and forth, significantly increasing the danger faced by the aerial assault team. The team leaders realised then it would be a 'non-compliant boarding'. To reduce the risk to the team, the pilot positioned the helicopter so that the machine gun and sniper were facing the bridge while the ARW operators fast roped off the other side. 'The deck was very challenging, with whip antennas and high cranes left and right. So, it made us do probably the highest fast rope we've ever done on to a vessel,' said the Air Corps Commander. All the while, the Matthew continued to turn back and forth. 'So it's an extremely challenging and dangerous insertion,' he said. The ARW team managed to get on the deck before, with their hands burning from the rope, moving to take control of the ship. Seconds later, the helicopter pulled away, having been unable to drop down several additional bags of equipment for the soldiers. 'We just needed to come off the deck because it was starting to get too dangerous,' said the air Commander. Although they may appear chaotic, ARW assaults involve 'a really graduated number of steps', said the special operations officer. 'Without getting into operational techniques, the priority generally is to take the vessel under way and control it,' said the officer. 'That means dominating the people on the vessel and taking control of key spaces so it can't be steered in a different direction or rammed into another vessel or scuttled.' The crew offered little resistance and, within a few minutes the ship was taken, the officer said. 'The lads moved very quickly to dominate. The psychological effect of that, particularly for people who are seamen and not involved in criminal activity, can be quite intimidating.' A fresh problem faced them immediately, however. Before the boarding, the crew had started to burn the cocaine in the lifeboat. Faced with the prospect of losing the evidence, ARW operators quickly grabbed fire extinguishers and doused the flames. With the crew in handcuffs, Revenue personnel were brought abroad, while an ARW operator piloted the Matthew, along with its 2.2 tonnes of cocaine, into Cork Harbour. On Friday, eight members of the crews of the Matthew and Castlemore received prison sentences of between 13 1/2 and 20 years – a combined 129 years in total – after pleading guilty in the Special Criminal Court to possession of €156 million worth of cocaine. General views of the MV Matthew in Cork. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire The court heard the drug smuggling operation was organised by a transnational organised crime group based in Dubai, which had 'immense capabilities, unlimited resources and a global reach'. Today, the Matthew sits rusting in a berth at Passage West in Cork while the Castlemore, or what is left of it, is still stranded on the sandbank off Wexford. In the aftermath of Operation Piano, those involved received praise domestically and internationally, with other militaries asking the Defence Forces for advice on planning similar operations. For the Defence Forces, Piano's success was a much-needed morale boost, given recent controversies surrounding abuse of women in the ranks and the organisation's recruitment and retention difficulties. Some members privately complained, however, that the threadbare resources available for the interdiction only underlined the systemic problems facing the military. 'You need two helicopters at a minimum to provide mutual support and that's a major, major issue because it's a risky operation anyway,' said former ARW officer Cathal Berry after the operation. 'What if the helicopter had to ditch in the sea or if it had a crash on the ship itself?' Those involved in the operation are more sanguine when asked about the shortages. 'At the end of the day, we had the assets that we had and it was the people that made it work,' said the Yeats's captain. 'There were periods there where the entire crew was up for 24 hours. But everybody swung up the arms and gave the maximum effort.' The air Commander said his 'ideal' package for such an operation is four helicopters; two to insert troops and two to provide covering fire. There is 'doom and gloom but there are positives coming', he said, pointing to the recent purchase of four H145M helicopters capable of deploying advanced weapons systems and the planned procurement of a fleet of larger 'super-medium' helicopters. Perhaps the biggest sign of hope for the Defence Forces is the recent stabilisation in the number of people leaving for the private sector and green shoots in terms of recruitment. Meanwhile, the Yeats and its crew have continued their run of success in drug interdiction operations. On Tuesday, the ship played a vital role in intercepting a €31 million cocaine shipment off Courtmacsherry in Cork. 'It's just a lucky ship, I suppose,' said one Defence Forces officer last week.
The Journal
a day ago
- The Journal
Irish criminals top tier of international organised crime, Interpol organised crime chief reveals
LAST UPDATE | 33 mins ago IRISH CRIMINALS ARE at the top tier of international organised crime, a senior Interpol official has said. This morning, at Haulbowline Naval Base in Cork, Irish and international agencies involved in Operation Piano, the mission to capture the MV Matthew, have spoken for the first time about how Ireland's largest ever cocaine seizure happened. Gardaí, Customs, the Naval Service, Interpol and MAOC-N outlined their teams' work in the capture in September 2023. Yesterday eight men, from Ukraine, Iran and the UK were sentenced to lengthy jail terms for their part in the mission. This morning, at a press conference, the voicemails from the Dubai based criminal controller were played for the first time for media. In an extraordinary video produced by the Garda Press Office and issued by participating agencies – the true drama of Operation Piano was revealed. On the 26th of September 2023, the MV Matthew was interdicted by the Joint Task Force (JTF) on Drug Interdiction. The JTF consists of the Revenue Customs Service, An Garda Síochána and the Naval Service as the lead representatives for the Defence Forces. During this operation,… — Óglaigh na hÉireann (@defenceforces) July 5, 2025 As revealed yesterday by The Journal part of the operation was a fundraising drive by Iranian operatives on behalf of the Hezbollah terror group . It was confirmed in Haulbowline this morning that three of the men on board were part of that Iranian team. Speaking to The Journal after the press conference David Caunter, of the Interpol Organised and Emerging Crime Directorate, said that Irish criminals are right at the head of the global organised crime snake. 'It [Irish criminal involvement in a European super cartel] continues to evolve. These cartels are super resilient. 'They're looking for new ways to get their drugs to market. So I think it's changing. I think the threat of synthetic drugs is on the rise globally. We're seeing synthetic drug markets popping up, especially here in Europe, which is an alarming trend just based from the high potential for death overdose deaths like we've seen in North America. 'So that's something that we're monitoring quite closely,' he said. Caunter said that there is evidence of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs such as nitazene which has become more prevalent across Europe. 'We're also seeing an increase in what we call poly drug cocktail drugs, pink cocaine, for example, which actually doesn't contain cocaine, but it is a mixture of various different synthetic drugs. 'When organizations are poisoning the streets with those types of substances, there's a high potential for overdose deaths and [associated] illnesses,' he added. He said that the nitazenes are more prevalent in Europe because the American market was hit first with fentanyl and the abuse of prescription drugs. Nitazene has been found in Ireland in counterfeit yellow tranquiliser style drugs – a warning has been issued by the HSE to users after several overdoses . Advertisement Caunter said the 'traditional plant based drug manufacturing' is not limited by geographical location and the crime groups are now moving towards synthetic drugs as it is easier to produce locally. 'It can really happen anywhere, anywhere in the world, and that's what makes it quite alarming. You can, you can move your your production zone right next to your your transportation networks,' he added. David Caunter, Director of Organized and Emerging Crime at INTERPOL during a briefing at Haulbowline Naval Base, Cork. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo Caunter said that connections between European organised crime involving Irish criminals with their counterparts such as the Sinaloa Cartel is widespread and evolving. When asked where do Irish organised criminals sit on the seniority level in global crime, whether they are top tier, middle or bottom, he said: ' I would say they're a top criminal organisation.' The intelligence Sjoerd Top, the director of the Maritime Analysis Operations Centre – Narcotics (MAOC-N) based in Lisbon, Portugal. Speaking in Haulbowline Naval Base this morning he said that Ireland was an example of the successes that can come from working together with international partners and Irish state agencies. Gardaí and Revenue Customs had received intelligence in Ireland prior to Operation Piano that also assisted in the targeting of the five people buying the Castlemore, the fishing boat which was destined to be used to transfer the drugs from the MV Matthew. This information was then married up with MAOC-N information that ultimately led to the seizure. Ireland runs a coastwatch initiative where people can contact the authorities to tell them of suspicious activity. Top referenced the seizure of €51m worth of cocaine in Cork last week and spoke of the importance of liaising with the Irish public when dealing with organised crime. 'Both cases show that cooperation, both nationally and internationally is crucial, and Ireland is an example for others of how to organise yourself well nationally and connect that with international bodies such as MAOC-N. 'I want to highlight the point that often gets less attention, but in my view has been crucial in this case. Ireland was able to engage the public and ask them to report strange behavior of their individuals. It has been able to link local knowledge with intelligence coming from international partners. 'Tackling organised crime groups benefits from a resilient society where the public, police, and customs are closely linked. That is not to be underestimated part of the success in these cases,' he said. Top explained that part of the assessment carried out by MAOC-N is about deciding which country can best target individual shipments and that is how Ireland succeeded in the MV Matthew mission. '[We analyse] which country had the best chance of making a successful interdiction that would lead to a successful prosecution. 'And based on the intelligence brought in by several countries, [Irish] liaison officers based in Lisbon, Portugal, we were able to swiftly organise that Ireland had the chance of a successful engagement where evidence could be gathered. 'In addition, we were able to support Ireland with analysis on vessel movements that clearly showed that those on board had evil intentions. In supporting so we were not only able to support Ireland but also other countries to use their scarce resources effectively and efficiently,' he added. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... 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The Journal
2 days ago
- The Journal
Analysis: MV Matthew seizure was a major success ... but Irish appetite for cocaine remains
THERE IS LITTLE doubt that the taking of the MV Matthew was a huge success story for Irish law enforcement agencies and the Irish military – it was the proof of a concept that had been promised by state agencies for decades. The operation that led to the capture of the vessel, along with its haul of cocaine worth some €157 million, came about through sharing of information among a raft of Irish and international law enforcement and military agencies. It demonstrated how, when it comes to large-scale crackdowns on drug trafficking, the haphazard approach of old, hoping that touts will inform the gardaí is now a lottery of the past. Operation Piano – as the operation was called – was as sophisticated as it can be, with an international web of agencies all working together. The success of the operation, as those working in the drug policy sector explain in further detail later in this piece, must however be balanced against the reality that the demand for cocaine is apparently as high as ever. Supply is also keeping up with that demand too – a point underscored by the fact that the street price of a bag of cocaine has not wavered from the standard €80 in recent years. Earlier today, eight men from Ukraine, Britain and Iran, were sentenced to jail terms ranging from 20 years to 13 and a half years. All were relative bit players in a much larger drama and, speaking after the sentencing, gardaí have vowed to continue their investigation to bring to justice those who directed the operation across the globe. The road to successes like today's has been a long one for gardaí, customs and the military – incremental modernisation, although on a slow drip basis, has come to fruition in the fight against organised crime. The birth of the Joint Task Force in which all of the agencies named above work as a group in largescale drugs interdictions is key. No competing agencies, everyone pulling in the same direction. Often it takes a disaster to move State agencies forward. In many respects the failure to stop the Regency Hotel murder of Kinahan lieutenant David Byrne by members of the Hutch gang was a key catalyst. The resulting feud between the Kinahans and the Hutches enough to bring State cheque books out of locked safes. This was the moment of realisation for those who control policy and funding to wake up to the reality that they could not fund policing on the cheap. The Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (DOCB), empowered and adequately financed in the wake of that incident is also key. One of the senior officers leading the operation went back to college in its wake and studied a masters in the law of the sea. This is not just about the experience of dealing myopically with criminals in Ireland – the police fighting this are educating themselves to a high standard and linking up with other like-minded professionals across the globe. The European and UK-backed initiative of MAOC-N based Lisbon, Portugal is key to their analysing of the minute movements of suspect ships. The agency was set up almost two decades ago specifically to tackle illicit drug trafficking on the seas around Europe. The Defence Forces has a long history of successful seabourne interdictions – arresting IRA gun runners and drug gangs. But the difference with Operation Piano was the truly joint operational nature of it. Many moving parts, all advancing in the same direction. There were years, for instance, of perfecting flying experience for Irish Air Corps pilots, with their expert personnel taking learnings from international partners at training and airshow events abroad. But the elephant in the room must get a mention too. The reality is the Air Corps and Navy are struggling with poor resourcing and a staffing crisis. The men and women of the Defence Forces achieved their side of the tale in spite of those funding shortfalls. The Journal has got unprecedented access to the elite Army Ranger Win g in the past as they practiced the very mission and manoeuvres they used to take the MV Matthew. But they too have been on a journey, now with better kit, tactics and a professional structure of enablers and support that rivals special forces units abroad. Acting as a buttress, behind it all, the State has instituted robust legislation to fight organised crime. The 2016 Criminal Justice Act carried with it sections around the prosecution of people for facilitating and participating in the activities of crime gangs. For the sailors, air crew, special forces operators and law enforcement officers this was a professional triumph – a moment they have spent their professional lives building towards. Advertisement A Ranger Wing operator approaches a cargo ship in an exercise off the East Coast. Irish Defence Forces Irish Defence Forces The burden of policy Often there is a pejorative public discourse that takes the work of those managing the counter narcotics operations as something to be sneered at. Social media posts and public pronouncements by supposed experts speak about those endeavours as pointless. The gardaí and international law enforcement officers we spoke to have said that they see their efforts being about dealing with the international criminals who are profiting from the sale and supply of drugs such as cocaine. For them it is not a war on drugs but a war on organised crime. All say that their view is that the MV Matthew is just one step forward in a strategy to make Ireland as unattractive as possible for the cartels and to make sure they land their contraband elsewhere. The more Operation Pianos that are successful the better for that strategy and there has been substantial success. Several people remain before the courts after operations in Foynes, Wexford and west Cork. The difficulty is that is a long term strategy. The price of a bag of coke, generally around €80 has not dropped. Seizures are occuring on a regular basis across the State in communities both big and small, urban and rural. Many experts, both here and abroad, are advocating for a more nuanced approach. That organised crime groups would continue to be targeted but that their customers, when confronted by the State, would be offered a chance to avoid a criminal conviction in return for participation in a dissuasion system. The Journal has visited such a system in Portugal . Ireland is considering a similar approach. Some of those ideas have already arrived here and the services are beginning to move to a more holistic medical approach. Tony Duffin, formerly of Dublin's Ana Liffey Project and now a consultant working in drug policy, said the broad issue is that reports from European agencies show that more people than ever are using cocaine. Duffin, who worked with people suffering with addiction issues on the streets of Dublin, said that the recreational use of cocaine powder is one issue. He said the use of crack cocaine by heroin addicts to make a powerful concoction known as a 'speedball' is another. Duffin said drug dealers are reducing the price of these drugs to capture the custom of more of those vulnerable drug users. 'The price of cocaine powder is stable but the crack cocaine price fluctuated – not because of a shift in supply but because of the business model,' he said. 'The guards and customs are working really, really hard. No one is slacking here. It's just that it's in the face of a multi billion dollar industry. 'It's a complex issue. There's no silver bullet. There's no simple answer or simple explanation. 'It requires quite a complex response in many ways, although, really, at the end of the day, the health education approach is simply moving the response to drug use to the health side of the house, rather than the criminal justice side of the house,' he added. Duffin said the general accepted success rate of drugs captures is between one and ten percent for the shipments captured – that is at least 90% of drugs shipped to Ireland get through. Garda sources we spoke to believe the figures is somewhere around 5% for the shipments they catch. The MV Matthew berthed in Cobh, Co Cork. Niall O'Connor / The Journal Niall O'Connor / The Journal / The Journal Regardless of the policy side of the house the Joint Task Force has had further success this week. On Wednesday the initiative saw a huge capture of half a tonne or €31m worth of cocaine by gardaí, assisted by the Defence Forces and Customs. The hope is, among those involved in the operations here and abroad, that the more big shows they succeed on, the more likely it is that the problem will move elsewhere and away from Ireland. The issue is that the recreational appetite for the white powder will still remain. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
