Two Men Charged Over €31m Cocaine Seizure in Co Cork

Two men have been charged in relation to the investigation into the seizure of cocaine worth around €31 million in Co Cork earlier this week. A quantity of suspected cocaine was found after a van was stopped in the Courtmacsherry area on Wednesday. Two men, aged in their 30s and 30s, were arrested at the scene. They have since been charged and are due before Bandon District Court later this morning. Two other men, also aged in their 30s and 40s, were arrested by gardaí after being detained at sea on a boat off the Co Cork coast. They remain in garda custody. It is understood the drugs were transferred, under surveillance, from a rigid hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) into an English-registered van at Broadstrand at around 4am on Wednesday. A van, with two men in it, was intercepted near Courtmacsherry by members of the Garda Emergency Response Unit and armed officers from the Garda Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau. An estimated 443kg of cocaine - believed to have originated in South America and for the UK market - was seized and has since been sent to Dublin for analysis. Two other men on board the RHIB which left Broadstrand, were later arrested off the coast of Cork by armed members on board two Irish Naval Service RHIBs launched by LE William Butler Yeats (P63). They were arrested by gardaí once P63 returned to its base at Haulbowline in Cork harbour. The RHIB was handed over to Revenue to be detained. It is the largest seizure of cocaine since the haul of 2.25 tonnes on the MV Matthew off the Cork coast in September 2023.