A member of the Irish Joint Taskforce on Drugs Interdiction has described to a court in London how the transatlantic crossing of a catamaran carrying drugs towards the Irish coast was tracked from South America.
Naval service Commander Eugene Ryan was giving evidence in the trial of a man charged in connection with the seizure of over 1,500kg of cocaine at Dunlough Bay, Co Cork, in July 2007.
The cocaine, with street value of €400m was brought from South America to west Cork in a catamaran called 'Lucky Day'.
Commander Ryan told the court that he had plotted the 5,300km journey from printouts of satellite calls made to and from the vessel.
There were calls originating in Medellin and Bogota in Colombia to the vessel as it sailed in a holding pattern off the coast of Venezuela.
Following the 27-day Atlantic Ocean crossing, the drugs were offloaded onto an inflatable craft off the southwest coat of Ireland.
The catamaran was later intercepted by the Spanish coastguard off the coast of La Coruña.
The trial is also due to hear evidence from gardaí based at Bandon Garda Station.
