Update on drugs bust off the Irish coast;
Posted by
Loyola
Sep 27 '23, 02:42
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The container ship has been brought to shore at Cobh on the south coast of Ireland. (Incidentally this was also Titanic’s last port of call.)
The ship so far has been found with 2.2 tons of cocaine with an estimated value of 150 million euro.
At sea, warning shots were fired upon it from the Irish naval vessel, the William Butler Yeats. (Who was a famous poet)
The container ship, the MV Matthew, a Panamanian registered vessel set sail from Georgetown, Guyana from South America sometime in August, and was suspected of rendezvousing with various trawlers near Irish waters, to dispense of its drug cargo. One of those trawlers ran aground Tuesday night on a sandbank whereupon its two crew members, an Englishman and an Eastern European were arrested. Both are said to have no experience of piloting a craft at sea.
The mothership, the MV Matthew then experienced some difficulty unloading its cargo at sea due to storm Agnes, and made its way up the Irish Sea between Ireland and England to find calmer waters. This is when the Irish navy gave chase.
The ship made an abrupt U turn in an attempt to flee to international waters and thus evade capture.
At this point permission was sought from the minister of defence to take the ship by force. This permission was given and two naval helicopters, took up position. One helicopter provided sniper cover fire, while the other winched by fast rope it’s team of armed Ranger soldiers.
It is unclear if shots were fired onboard.
However, the captain of the ship, an Iranian man, was found to have suffered a blackout and had injuries to his back, head and neck and was airlifted to Cork Hospital where he is currently under armed guard.
The search of the ship is underway, and specialist cutting teams are being brought in to cut up the hold of the ship in case more drugs are found there.
This is all terribly exciting. I think we should set sail for Guyana and invade there and see what’s up.
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