Gardai and Customs officials have hailed the successful prosecution of two men charged with importing one of the largest quantities of drugs into the State as a major boost in their fight against drugs.
The conviction of Wicklow-born John O'Toole (52) and the guilty plea of Englishman, Michael Tune (39) to importing £40 million worth of cocaine was a welcome development, said the drug enforcement agencies.
Speaking after a jury at Cork Circuit Criminal Court found O'Toole guilty of importing cocaine and possessing cocaine for supply, Det Sgt Sean Healy of the West Cork Divisional Drugs Squad said the case sent out a clear message to drug smugglers.
"Any conviction for an offence like this is certainly a deterrent to others considering embarking on such a mission," he said.
According to Mr Paddy O'Sullivan of the Customs and Excise National Drugs Unit, the case showed that the proper controls were in place in Ireland as well as indicating the close co-operation that existed between Customs and the Garda.
The Garda believes the £40 million worth of cocaine - second only to the £88 million seizure on the Sea Mist in Cork Harbour in 1996 - was intended for transshipment on to the UK and Europe with a small portion destined for the Irish market.
The jury took almost five hours over Friday and Saturday to convict O'Toole - with an address in Panama City - on two counts of importing cocaine and possessing cocaine for supply in Kinsale last September.
Judge Patrick Moran told the jury that O'Toole's co-accused, Tune - with an address in Tenerife - had already pleaded guilty to the offence. Tune pleaded guilty midway through the trial but it was kept from the jury in order not to prejudice O'Toole's trial.
The three-week trial heard that Customs Officers uncovered 320 kg of cocaine hidden under bunks, diesel tanks and behind a bulwark on O'Toole's 50 foot catamaran, Gemeos, in Kinsale Harbour on September 3rd and 4th last.
Suspicions were aroused when the Gemeos moored on the wrong buoy in Kinsale and failed to pay harbour dues. Attention was also drawn to the Gemeos because if failed to fly the necessary Q flag flown by foreign boats to invite customs officials on board.
Harbour Master Capt Phil Devitt contacted Customs officers, who went to interview O'Toole on board. He told them he and Tune had sailed the boat from Tenerife but they found charts showing it had come from the Caribbean.
O'Toole said he was bringing the boat to Europe to sell it but Customs officers didn't believe him and began their search and found the cocaine wrapped in plastic packs. Analysis showed it was 75 per cent pure cocaine giving a street value of £40 million. A third member of the crew, Englishman Phil Ussher, had left the boat a day before customs officers raided the Gemeos. He was subsequently detained at Dublin Airport but because nothing had been found at that stage, he was allowed on a flight to the US.
O'Toole told interviewing gardai he brought the drugs to Ireland because he had been threatened in Panama he would be killed.
He went to Panama after his yacht chartering business failed in Tenerife and his Panamanian wife, Gabriella, got cancer.
He met a man - Mr X - in a yacht club in Panama City in June 1997 and he asked him to take drugs to Europe but he refused. However, he accepted $5,000 in cash from the man and later accepted other payments totalling $70,000, he told gardai.
When he asked Mr X for more money in June 1998, he was threatened that he would be killed if he didn't do a drugs run. "He said `You take the boat to Europe or I'll take the boat and you're dead,' " O'Toole told gardai.
The man told him he would give him $300,000 - minus the $70,000 already given to him - upon completion of the delivery. "I agreed to go as I felt I had no choice and needed the cash to treat my wife's cancer," O'Toole told gardai.
O'Toole admitted he brought the drugs to Kinsale and knew they were on the boat but said he did so under duress. His wife died in Panama earlier this month from cancer, the trial was told.
But the jury didn't accept his defence that his involvement in the operation was solely due to duress and found him guilty.
Judge Moran adjourned sentencing on both men until June 1st.