Gardai believe that two men involved in a €157 million cocaine haul off the south coast made an attempt to buy a trawler in Killybegs.
A massive 2.2 tonnes of cocaine, the biggest ever drugs haul off the coast of Ireland, was discovered on the MV Matthew last week.
Detectives are also exploring links between the cash and the €4 million worth of cocaine found washed up on two Donegal beaches in July.
Officers are still trying to establish if further bales were lost at sea.
Gardai have revealed that they understand that two men whose vessel, the Castlemore, ran aground on a sandbank off the Wexford coast, made an attempt to purchase a boat in Killybegs.
Two men have already appeared at a special sitting of Waterford District Court, each charged with conspiracy to import drugs.
“There were links to that with this county where two individuals, possibly the two that went on the sandbank, were in Killybegs,” said Sergeant Paul Wallace, the Crime Prevention Officer in the Donegal Garda Division.
“Two individuals were in Killybegs attempting to buy a trawler. The trawler man would have been glad of the sale because of the way the fishing has gone. The trawler man became suspicious because he knew these guys weren’t adept at handling the boat and weren’t asking the right questions.
“Any money transaction now can leave you very vulnerable so he pulled out. It is possible that these guys went to Castletownbere then and bought that boat (the Castlemore.)”
The Castlemore was purchased for an estimated €250,000, but ran aground on September 24.
Following a rescue operation, Harbron and Lapa were lifted off the deck of the Castlemore and onto the LÉ William Butler Yeats, an offshore patrol vessel of the Irish Naval Service.
During a court appearance, Detective Garda Liam Mangan, of the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, said the Castlemore ran arg=round ‘in an effort to complete a transaction’ with the MV Matthew.
An estimated €157 million worth of cocaine was found on the MV Matthew, a Panamanian bulk cargo vessel which is now detained off the Cork coast following a major multi-agency operation.
The captain of the MV Matthew, Soheil Jelveh (50), an Iranian national with no fixed abode, has been charged with the importation of cocaine, contrary to Section 15 of the Misuse of Drugs Act of 1977.
In a first-of-its-kind operation, the Elite Army Ranger wing boarded the MV Matthew by fast rope before seizing the cargo and Jelveh was airlifted to University Hospital before subsequently being arrested.
Sergeant Wallace said: “When you look at the route that ship took from South America, up along the coast of Africa, slowing down at the Canary Islands and going very close to the coast of Portugal and France, it wouldn’t take a lot of imagination to figure out what was going on.
“There was tremendous work by all agencies, particularly those brave people who boarded the boat.”
Leading Gardai are also probing links between the bales of cocaine found in Donegal and the parcels recovered from last week’s operation.
A fishing vessel, a Cleopatra 38, was impounded at Magheroarty pier as part of the probe into that find – the largest consignment of drugs seized in Donegal.
“We are not making the direct link,” Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said. “The linkage is still under investigation.
“That investigation also informed us hugely as to the modus operandi — their means of operation and equipment that they needed to acquire for a rendezvous at sea to successfully happen.”
