LONDON: A man has been jailed for 10 years and two others for eight years each for attempting to smuggle almost €300 million of cocaine into the UK.
Yacht skipper Jonathan Powell (71) was sentenced to 10-years in prison, while crew members Benjamin Mellor (34) and Thomas Britteon (28) were each jailed for eight years by Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin.
All three were detained aboard the Makayabella yacht 217 nautical miles off the Cork coast on September 23rd last, in a Joint Task Force operation involving navy, customs and gardaí.
The Irish Naval Service vessel LE Niamh (right) shadowing the yacht Makayabella off the south west Irish coast.
Cork Circuit Criminal Court, Insp Fergal Foley told the judge that all three were in a poor state when detained: “To be blunt, they were delighted to see the navy.”
All three Britons had pleaded guilty to possessing 1,025kgs of cocaine with a street value of €290 million for sale or supply, and to drug trafficking offences.
Mr Foley said that the seizure of the drugs involved a multi-agency operation in Ireland, working in tandem with law enforcement agencies in several other countries.
The entire operation was due to the coordination of intelligence by the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre – Narcotics (MAOC-N) in Lisbon in Portugal, he said.
Insp Foley said intelligence on the Makayabella in the Caribbean was disseminated by MAOC-N to various agencies, including the National Crime Agency in the UK.
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