THREE ENGLISHMEN have been jailed for 10 years each for their part in a €400 million drug-smuggling operation foiled off the west Cork coast by gardaí, the Naval Service and Customs in a joint operation which led to the seizure of over 1.5 tonnes of cocaine.
Philip Doo (52), Christopher Wiggins (43) and David Mufford (45) had each pleaded guilty to possessing 1,504kg of cocaine for sale or supply on board the yacht Dances with Waves some 150 miles off Mizen Head on November 5th, 2008.
The three pleaded guilty to the offence which is contrary to Section 15A of the Misuse of Drugs Act and Section 28 of the Criminal Justice (Illicit Traffic at Sea) Act at Cork Circuit Criminal Court last month, and had been remanded in custody for sentence yesterday.
Judge Patrick Moran, who had been told the drugs were destined for the UK, accepted the three men had pleaded guilty at the first available opportunity and had thus saved the State the considerable expense of a lengthy trial, with witnesses coming from abroad.
He acknowledged that none of the three accused had previous convictions or had ever come to attention of the police in the UK before, while they had also co-operated with gardaí and materially assisted them in their investigation into the smuggling operation.
All of these were factors when considering any exceptional circumstances that would allow him not to impose the mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years for the Section 15A offence, he said. But he had to consider all aspects of the case, including the size of the haul, which had to be one of the biggest ever before Irish courts, and the effect it could have had if not detected by the Irish agencies, which had done excellent work.
"These are very serious offences - you were involved in serious drug trafficking, carrying enormous quantities of drugs from South America to Europe, in particular to the United Kingdom, your own country," Judge Moran told the three men. "One can only shudder when one thinks of the havoc that would have been caused to the citizens of the United Kingdom, in particular to young people and their families if this consignment had got through - from your point of view it was an easy way to make money."
Judge Moran had heard evidence from Det Sgt Fergal Foley of West Cork Divisional Drugs Squad that Doo was skipper of the yacht Dances with Waves and while all three were to be paid "six figure sums", he was to get more money than the others.
Judge Moran said he looked upon all three as being "equally guilty" as he sentenced each of them to 10 years in jail, backdated to November 7th when they were first taken into custody.
Doo, of Rocklands House, Higher Manor Road, Brixham, Devon; Wiggins, Mirador de Costalita, Cancelada, Estepona, Malaga, and Mufford, Clennon Court, Torquay, Devon showed no emotion as they were jailed.
Judge Moran made an order that all three were to be listed on the drugs offenders' register for seven years after their release, while he granted a forfeiture order to the State for the seizure of Dances with Waves.
