Record-Breaking Cocaine Seizure: Irish Police Intercept Over 2,000 Kilogrammes from Vessel 'MV Matthew'

DUBLIN – The biggest-ever drug seizure in the history of Ireland was intercepted off the coast of Cork in the southeast of the country on Tuesday, Irish police said.

Cocaine weighing 2 253 kilogrammes, worth an estimated 157 million euros ($165 million), was seized from the vessel “MV Matthew” travelling from South America, Director General of Revenue and Customs, Gerry Harrahill said at a news conference in Dublin Wednesday.

“It is the largest drug seizure in the history of the State,” Justin Kelly, assistant commissioner of An Garda Síochána, Ireland’s police force, said at the same conference.

“This is a hugely significant operation and it shows our unrelenting determination to disrupt and dismantle networks which are determined to bring drugs into our country,” Kelly added.

Three men, aged 31, 50 and 60, have been arrested on suspicion of organised crime and are currently being questioned at Garda stations in County Wexford, according to a Garda press release.

Officers said the drugs originated from South America and were bound for crime groups in Ireland, the United Kingdom (UK) and Europe.