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Updated at 7pm
REVENUE OFFICERS HAVE seized cocaine with an estimated street value of over €5 million found concealed in a ‘torpedo-like’ device on the shoreline in Co Clare.
Acting on a report from a member of the public, Revenue Customs officers from the south-west region discovered the suspicious item on the shore near Liscannor.
Around 75kg of cocaine was found in the container.
Maritime Operations Manager with the Revenue Customs service Andrew Ryan said the container was likely attached below the waterline of a cargo ship.
The device was around 2.5 metres long and was welded shut, he told RTÉ’s Drivetime programme this evening. It was found yesterday.
Such containers are “normally attached to the hull of legitimate cargo vessel,” Ryan said. While authorities check for them in Irish ports, it’s the first time such a device has been found in Irish waters.
Asked whether the crew of the ship it was attached to would have known it was there, he said:
“There was no way they would have known it.
These devices are normally attached by organised crime groups using divers, underneath the actual waterline of the vessel.
While officers were familiar with the design as it’s used internationally by drug gangs, no such devices had been found in Ireland before, he said.
In a statement, Revenue said the public are asked “not to put themselves in danger by approaching or interfering with suspicious items such as this”.
People living in coastal communities, maritime personnel and people living near airfields have been asked to report unusual or suspicious activities to Revenue via 1800 295 295.
Investigations are continuing, Ryan said this evening.
It is not yet possible to say either where the drugs originated or their intended destination, he added.
- with reporting by Daragh Brophy
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We’re going to need a bigger note.
Watch, stop search seize, about customs whe r they get fags, dodgy diesel, and the odd car yet the country is awash with drugs of all sorts! In this famous EU ” free movement of goods and services we cam only bring in 300 fags, pay VRT on imported from another (still) EU state the UK. Imagine if you drove your car from New York to Texts and you told the person they had to pay a few grand.
@james:
The actual quote from Jaws is “You’re gonna need a bigger boat”
I assumed he was buying :-)
@Fox in the Box: The actual quote from James is a joke,a funny,a pun on the line from Jaws.
@Jimmy Burn:
A joke/pun? How does that work?
He simply got the quote wrong (like most people do)
Im aiming for 50 red thumbs here folks. Nothing enhances my sense of self importance more after correcting someones mistakes
Ah stop Bill, I cringe every time I watch “Stop search Seize” and hear the bloke at Dublin airport… He sounds like Dustin the turkey and acts like a total muppet… There has to be someone on the staff that won’t look/sound like him.
No Fox, I’d guess a pun about the size of the rolled up note to snort that amount. Everybody knows the quote, nobody I know gets it wrong.
Ah, let him do his job. Not everyone can be a professional actor with voice-coaching. There are enough of them in government putting spin on nonsense. IRL people aren’t all media experts.
Bigger note to snort it obviously?!? Good wit is wasted on the journal at times!
Not getting the attempted bad joke no?
“We’re going to need a better quote.”
-Fox in the Box
One small step for man..One big jump for Mankind -Noel Armstrong
@Frank Van Esbeck:
It’s
“You’re going to need a better quote”
:)
Wrong. It’s “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” Please don’t misquote Jaws.
@Frank Van Esbeck:
That’s the spirirt!
You know when people read too much in to a joke and make it completely unfunny, that’s exactly what happened here
@Michael Clinton: Ya bet he was bullied in school or something. getting off on his little power trip. what a d**k
@Greg Blake: Correct!
Seized? Is that headline not a tad over-dramatic? Found or stumbled upon maybe more accurate…but seized?!
Seized is a legal term. They were seized. It doesnt need to be dramatic to qualify as seizure. Everything isn’t a Spielberg movie.
Really Neil ?
Grabbing the goggles and wetsuit as I type.Should be in Liscannor in 45 mins.
Catch of the day
Hands up, who would tr try drag that back to their car?
Sure you’d have to be an Olympic athlete to do that…
@Jimmy Burn:just sample the coke and you’d pick it up in one hand.
Cops really upped the street value of that bag.
@Pa Cantillon: It does say “file photo” as usual with the Journal.
No it dorsnt!
Some welder in Columbia is having a bad day today, I’ll venture…
Skills seem a bit rusty all right…
not to be sniffed at..
Paul Williams The kinahan gang will ultimately be blamed for this coke Paul williams is making the connection as we speak The special crime correspondent knows all
@Upowthat Burke: Paul Williams told me they were hiding at the bottom of my garden so they couldnt have been involved.
Excellent seizure by Customs.
@Paddy Lions:has Pat Lyons, Tap Solny ever really left us? God help our souls.
Bye bye ship captain get your affairs in order as the say !
@Noel: No,”Soon he talk with the fish”
It looks like some of it was destined for the playboy mansion
Is anybody else as surprised that the Gardaí are still using those old yellow wooden 30cm rulers?!
‘Metallica’ is scratched on the back with a compass.
People still need to measure things, even here in the 21st century when we’re all robots wirh flying cars.
“suspicious items such as this.” They might at least show us what “this” looks like if they want people to be more aware. It could be a 75g jellyfish for all we know.
Thanks, Journal, putting illustrations at last, and a ruler for scale. Good work.
Play-buoy of the Western World.
Scarriface.
Genius
In today’s news, the sequel to The Young Offenders writes itself.
The lads in Young Offenders would have some job attaching that yoke onto a child’s bike.
The water is choppy off the Clare coast…
Poor criminals will be drinking Coke Zero tonight….
Kilrush
The lads will get their obligatory “cut”
May I have it back. It was for my own personal consumption.
No white Christmas this year I’m afraid. Notttttt!!!! of course there will be.
It’s so rusty must have been ” floating” for months.
Yes officer there was only one torpedo I shall March home now and bake a really nice cake
If I find one I will not be reporting it to anybody.
What’s in it for the dope who rang the authorities.?
I suppose he thought it was some kind of old war torpedo.
no chance of a white christmas now….
The thing about theses us that if it’s found attached it’s the ships captain and crew that get dragged in for questioning or interrogation depending on where they are. The ship has to pay for its berth during this time amd loses money for delay of shipment of their legitimate cargo. The captain will provably end up in jail as they are responsible for the ship amd its contents
Not in the case, if its attached illeagely to the berth of the ship how can a captain be responsible, the port where it was stationed at before maybe.
Im puzzled though! How did the torpedo wash up on the shore? Or if broke away from underneath how did it not sink judgeing by the look of it it weighs pretty heavy.. story doesnt add up, all the journal knows is what it can see from the photo. Garbage news
Does God know he’s lost so much dandruff in one go yet? When they find out who lost it they’ll be missing their head and shoulders.
Some Scu#mbags are going to be seriously pi##ed off…….. yesssss! I’d like to thank the mariner who tethered the drugs to their ship………. s#itty job…….. well done!
Nothing to do with the mariner, these get welded on underwater without the crews knowledge.
Now showing: The Discovery of the Tetanic..
Agh its looks like the playboy bunny has found its home in the world of cocaine-ism. Well done to the revenue commissioners for cracking down on this terrible drug, it is almost as damaging as alcohol.
I feel another movie on the horizon
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