The Special Criminal Court has jailed seven cocaine smugglers for terms between 10½ years and 12 years, with the presiding judge saying she must impose a “significant deterrent” to international criminal operations that use Ireland’s coastline to import drugs, causing immeasurable damage.
Judge Karen O’Connor, at the three-judge court, said each of the seven had travelled to Ireland to participate in serious criminality, providing their individual skills for the illegal operation that ended in the successful importation of an estimated €42 million worth of cocaine.
The judge said the circumstances of the case indicated the operation was planned by an international drugs cartel operating at a very high level. She said there was a public interest in disincentivising the use of Ireland’s coastline for drug importation, which she described as “the worst form of criminality” and a “scourge that destroys lives, families and communities”.
It is “impossible to estimate how much damage and destruction” had been caused by the importation of such a large quantity of cocaine, the judge said, adding that the court must impose a “significant deterrent both globally and nationally”, to such offending.
