Prison sentences ranging from thirteen-and-a-half years to twenty years have been handed down to eight men for their roles in a 157-million-euro drug operation.
The haul, which was the largest seizure of cocaine in the history of the State, was recovered when the Irish Army Rangers boarded the MV Matthew off the Cork Coast in 2023.
Six of the ship’s crew members, and two men onboard a fishing trawler that was due to collect the drugs in Irish waters, pleaded guilty to various charges earlier this year
At today’s sentencing, the judge accepted the men didn’t stand to benefit from the sale of the drugs but said their motive was “undoubtedly financial.”
She also refused to accept they were just cogs in the overall operation, instead describing them as "valuable components" of the engine that drives international drug trafficking.
