Five men arrested aboard a container ship off the Cork coast last year are to be tried at the Special Criminal Court following the biggest drugs seizure in the history of the State when more than 2.2 tonnes of cocaine worth an estimated €157 million was seized.
The five accused were all crew members aboard the MV Matthew when it was detained in a joint taskforce operation involving customs, gardaí and the Naval Service when Army Rangers boarded the ship at sea off the coast of east Cork in the early hours of September 26th 2023.
Today all five appeared amid tight security at Mallow District Court where Insp Tony O’Sullivan said that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had directed trial by indictment at the Special Criminal Court for all five and he applied for a continuing remand in custody until May 21st.
All five, Ukrainians Myhailo Gavryk (31) and Vitaliy Vlasoi (31), Iranian Saeid Hassani (38), Dutch national Cumali Ozgen (49) and Filipino Harold Estoesta had already been charged with conspiring with others to possess the cocaine for sale or supply within the State on September 24th, 2023.
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But on Tuesday, four of the five, Mr Gavryk, Mr Vlasoi, Mr Hassani and Mr Ozgen were charged with a new offence with which Mr Estoesta had previously been charged, namely being knowingly involved in the activities of a criminal organisation, contrary to section 72 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006.
They are charged that they did with knowledge of the existence of a criminal organisation, participate in, or contribute to activity intending to or being reckless as to whether such participation or contribution could facilitate the commission of a serious offence by that criminal organisation.
Garda National Drug and Organised Crime Bureau officers, Det gardaí David Moran, Lorraine Brennan and Mark Donovan gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution concerning the new charge against all four with three of the accused making no reply and Mr Hassani responding: “I do not accept it.”
Insp O’Sullivan said that, while the book of evidence in the case was substantially ready in that it was three-quarters completed, he was applying for a further remand for a fortnight for all five to appear at Mallow District Court on May 21st when he was confident it would be ready for service.
He said it was possible the book of evidence would be ready by next Tuesday, but the new criminal organisation charge required a ministerial order from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheál Martin and he was not sure if Minister Martin would be in the country to sign the order by May 14th.
Solicitor Aidan Desmond said his client Mr Estoesta had been on remand for over six months and the State had already been given an extension for service of book of evidence long beyond the statutory 42 days and now for the State to seek a further two week adjournment was simply intolerable.
Mr Desmond’s comments were echoed by solicitor Don Ryan for Mr Hassani, who pointed out that his client had been charged with a conspiracy offence, contrary to Section 71 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006 on October 2nd only for the State to withdraw the charge on November 21st.
Solicitor David O’Meara for Mr Gavryk and barristers, Nicholas Hall BL for Mr Ozgen and Ross Pratt O’Brien BL for Mr Vlasoi expressed similar dissatisfaction with the State application with the latter saying it would be mean there would be a delay in the case reaching the Special Criminal Court.
Judge Colm Roberts said he would adjourn the matter until May 14th for mention so the State could get some clarification regarding when the ministerial order was to going signed with a view to the book of evidence being served on all five defendants on May 21st at Mallow District Court.
He said he fully accepted that the new charge required a signed ministerial order so the accused could be returned for trial but he questioned “why does it take the DPP until now to bring this new charge when the circumstances of the case are known to the DPP and to the gardaí for six months?”
“I’m not very happy that we are getting a commitment by the State that the book of evidence will be ready by a certain date only for then, from nowhere, unannounced, a new charge is preferred. The court is not very impressed by the last-minute nature of this charge,” said Judge Roberts.
“It is a very serious matter, and I don’t doubt the hard work done by the gardaí given the complexity of the investigation . . . you wouldn’t want to be too sensitive. I know I have a lowly enough role in the process but it’s important to maintain the integrity of the system.”
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