The text message came from Dubai with a Santa emoji. OK lads. No need for luck. Really this couldn't be any more straightforward. Just relax and this will all be over soon.
It was sent to a fisherman from Ukraine and an unemployed man from Teesside who were sailing to the middle of the Irish Sea to collect cocaine from a passing cargo ship, the MV Matthew.
As it turned out, they needed plenty of luck and very little was straightforward.
The two men were part of an audacious attempt to traffic more than 2.2 tonnes of cocaine into the UK and Europe. It ended in failure, with a successful strike against the powerful drug cartels by the Irish authorities.
Eight men were convicted and jailed for a total of 129 years. All of the cocaine was destroyed.
But despite this result, law enforcement agencies across Europe admit they are struggling to stop the growing quantity of cocaine crossing the Atlantic from South America.
The Maritime Analysis Operations Centre (MAOC) has indicated that approximately 100 ships suspected of trafficking drugs to Europe were not intercepted last year due to lack of sufficient resources.
As drugs are shipped in large container vessels to ports like Rotterdam and Antwerp, the tightening security has led smugglers to explore alternative routes, including at-sea drop-offs using 'mother' and 'daughter' vessels.
With Ireland's vast and vulnerable coastline, drug cartels have seen it as the perfect backdoor into Europe, putting pressure on the country's limited naval resources and prompting calls for greater action in combating drug trafficking.
It was sent to a fisherman from Ukraine and an unemployed man from Teesside who were sailing to the middle of the Irish Sea to collect cocaine from a passing cargo ship, the MV Matthew.
As it turned out, they needed plenty of luck and very little was straightforward.
The two men were part of an audacious attempt to traffic more than 2.2 tonnes of cocaine into the UK and Europe. It ended in failure, with a successful strike against the powerful drug cartels by the Irish authorities.
Eight men were convicted and jailed for a total of 129 years. All of the cocaine was destroyed.
But despite this result, law enforcement agencies across Europe admit they are struggling to stop the growing quantity of cocaine crossing the Atlantic from South America.
The Maritime Analysis Operations Centre (MAOC) has indicated that approximately 100 ships suspected of trafficking drugs to Europe were not intercepted last year due to lack of sufficient resources.
As drugs are shipped in large container vessels to ports like Rotterdam and Antwerp, the tightening security has led smugglers to explore alternative routes, including at-sea drop-offs using 'mother' and 'daughter' vessels.
With Ireland's vast and vulnerable coastline, drug cartels have seen it as the perfect backdoor into Europe, putting pressure on the country's limited naval resources and prompting calls for greater action in combating drug trafficking.
