Sophisticated Cocaine Smuggling Ring Busted in Ireland

0:00It's March 23rd. From global headlines to breaking updates, this is Global News Today, powered by AI. Seven men have been sentenced to, between 10 and 12 years in prison in Ireland, for plotting to smuggle more than 600 kilograms of cocaine into the country. The drugs had an estimated street value of 42 million euros, or about 36 million pounds. Three of the men were Filipino crew members on a ship that sailed from the Amazon region, while the other four were from the UK and handled the landing. The ship flying a Maltees flag anchored in the Shannon Estuary off-County Claire on January 12. The UK men arrived in Ireland separately after early January, and used a rigid inflatable boat to collect the cocaine from the vessel near Carri Gajane, pier and county carry before dropping it off nearby. These men operated and structured cells, with the Filipinos as the transport team who loaded the drugs in Brazil and the UK group as the landing crew. They had skills like maritime experience and even military background, and everything

1:04was directed remotely by controllers using WhatsApp pseudonyms. From places like Dubai and Argentina, Irish police, or Guardi, along with revenue officers, tracked them down through seized phones that revealed the ship's location and chat groups. The crew was arrested on board between January 15th and 17th, while the landing team was nabbed earlier that week on the pier. The judge described it as a sophisticated international smuggling ring, with links to Brazil, the UK, Dubai, and beyond, where the men were handpicked for their expertise. This bust highlights how organized crime keeps pushing big loads despite tight surveillance.