Gardaí have begun a forensic examination of phones seized from a bulk carrier found with over €20 million worth of cocaine in Co Limerick this week.
Gardaí have begun examining mobile phones, satellite phones and other electronic equipment found aboard the MV Verila for fingerprint and DNA evidence so that they can identify who among the 18 strong crew were using the phones.
If an examination of the phones by garda technical experts then reveals the devices were used to communicate with other people and vessels involved in the huge drug smuggling operation, gardaí will be able to identify which crew members they must focus on.
Gardaí will be able to match any fingerprints and DNA evidence found on the phones and on the drugs themselves with any fingerprints or DNA samples taken from any member of the crew that they might arrest in relation to the huge cocaine smuggling operation.
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Gardaí are continuing to conduct voluntary interviews with the largely Bulgarian crew of the MV Verila with the aid of interpreters both on board the 190m-long vessel and at a number of garda stations in Limerick city and county to try to find out what they know about the drugs stash.
The 300kg of cocaine worth €21 million consisted of six 50kg bundles of the drug wrapped in plastic with buoyancy aids and GPS trackers attached to each bundle and gardaí believed the smugglers intended dropping the drugs off at sea for collection by others involved in the drugs trade.
According to a garda source, the fact the drugs were equipped with buoyancy aids and GPS trackers suggests they were not intended for importation at Foynes, but it’s unclear whether other bundles had already been dropped off at sea and where the remaining bundles were due to be dropped off.
“it’s impossible to know at this stage if the gang had already dropped off some packages of cocaine for collection before they put into Foynes but that certainly will form part of the garda investigation which involves liaising with other agencies both here in Ireland and internationally,” he said.
Meanwhile, Customs officers who uncovered the drugs above deck on the bulk carrier with the aid of sniffer dog, Hayley are continuing to search the freighter which had sailed from Hamilton in eastern Canada earlier this month with a load of grain for the Irish market.
The MV Verila is owned by a company called Verila Navigation Limited based in Valletta in Malta and the ship is also registered in Malta and she is managed by a Bulgarian shipping company called Navigation Maritime Bulgare which is headquartered in Varna and manages a fleet of 70 ships.
The ship which was built in 2022 at the Jiangsu Yangzijian shipyard in China is currently valued at $24 million and appears to have spent the last few months on a triangular route, journeying between Europe and South America and North America before returning to Europe.
Gardaí are liaising with the Maritime Analysis Operations Centre Narcotics (MAOCN) based in Lisbon in Portugal to try to establish the MV Verila’s movements over the past few months to try to establish where she may have picked up the drugs and delivered any consignments of them.
The most recent records show that MV Verila left Santos in southern Brazil on November 4th and headed for Quebec in Canada, arriving there on November 23rd before continuing on to Hamilton on Lake Ontario where she arrived on November 27th before departing on November 30th.
The ship then returned to Hamilton on December 5th and spent two and a half days in port there before departing again on December 8th and taking some eleven days to cross the Atlantic before arriving at the Shannon Estuary and docking at Foynes on Tuesday morning.
She has been subjected to six standard inspections including one by the Russian authorities in the Black Sea last February, one by the US Coastguard at Tampa in Florida last July and one the Canadian authorities at Hamilton last August and no deficiencies were found during any of the inspections.
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