Two men have pleaded guilty one week into their Special Criminal Court trial, which heard they were part of an international drug trafficking operation that resulted in the largest seizure of cocaine in Irish history.
Iranian Saeid Hassani (39) and Filipino Harold Estoesta (31) on Tuesday pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine for sale or supply on board the MV Matthew, a Panamanian-registered ship that was carrying 2.2 tonnes of the drug, worth an estimated €157 million, when it was boarded and taken over by members of the Irish Army Rangers.
Hassani and Estoesta were the last of a group of eight defendants charged in relation to the seizure to plead guilty, with six co-accused previously entering pleas before their trial at the three-judge, non-jury court.
The charge to which Hassani and Estoesta pleaded states that between September 24th and September 26th, 2023, at a location outside the State, on board the MV Matthew, they had cocaine for sale or supply in contravention of the Misuse of Drugs Act and that the market value of the drug exceeded €13,000.
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Sean Guerin SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said the pleas were acceptable “on a full facts basis”.
Ms Justice Melanie Greally remanded both men in custody to February 24th when the court intends to fix a date for their sentencing hearing.
Earlier this month four men pleaded guilty to a similar offence. They are Ukrainians Mykhailo Gavryk (32) and Vitaliy Vlasoi (32), Iranian Soheil Jelveh (51) and Dutch national Cumali Ozgen (49).
Ukrainian national Vitaliy Lapa (62), with an address at Rudenka, Repina St in Berdyansk and Jamie Harbron (31) of South Avenue, Billingham in the UK, have also pleaded guilty to attempting to possess cocaine for sale or supply between September 21st and September 25th, 2023 in relation to the same shipment.
Opening the trial last week, Mr Guerin said the State’s case was that the two men played an “essential part” in a “very sophisticated and highly professional international drug trafficking operation”.
The court heard that while the MV Matthew was sailing under the flag of Panama, it was owned by a Dubai-based company known as ‘Symphony Marine’. It departed from Curacao, off the Venezuelan coast and sailed across the Atlantic before arriving in Irish territorial waters. Evidence would show how the cargo ship attempted to evade capture but was followed “in hot pursuit” by the Naval Service patrol vessel LE William Butler Yeats. The chase concluded when members of the Army Rangers were inserted by the Air Corps and took control of the vessel.
The prosecution case against the two men was that they were directly involved in the physical possession of the drugs by the role they had played as ship’s officers. Mr Guerin said there would be evidence that the men had given direction to others in preparation for the physical transfer of the drugs from the MV Matthew on to a fishing boat named the Castlemore. The State alleged both accused were in a Deck Officers WhatsApp messaging group and the case against them related to communications about the transportation of the drugs and the concealment of those activities from others.
Last week, the State called evidence they said showed Estoesta was also involved in a group effort to disguise the vessel’s true position on the seas.
