A new boat will hugely enhance Customs officers’ ability to apprehend drug smugglers seeking to bring hauls of cocaine through Irish waters to Europe, a senior Revenue official said.
Revenue Commissioners assistant secretary Tom Talbot said the 35m-long RCC Cosaint, which was built at a cost of €8.5 million and will be based in Cork, will allow a dedicated team to patrol Irish waters more effectively.
It has a greater range than previous Customs vessels and an ability to remain operational in rougher seas.
Mr Talbot said it will replace the 25m RCC Suirbhéir, which is being retired, and will patrol and monitor Irish waters alongside Revenue’s other vessel, the RCC Faire.
RM Block
“The RCC Cosaint has a range of 750 nautical miles and two crews of 10. They do a week on, a week off, so the crew will rotate and this vessel will be at sea a lot more, patrolling, surveilling, intelligence gathering all around our 3,173 kilometres of coastline,” he said.
“They will also be working closely with our inshore teams, who will be analysing intelligence and will also act upon Drugs Watch and Coast Watch when the public phone in something suspicious so it will be this vessel or Faire that will act on that.”
Mr Talbot said that at-sea drop offs (ASDOs) have become an increasingly common smuggling method used by organised crime groups to smuggle drugs, primarily cocaine into Europe from South America.
“ASDOs involve large cargo ships, known as ‘mother vessels’, being loaded with drugs either while in port or while the vessel is at anchor somewhere off the coast of South America and the mother vessel will then continue on its scheduled routing across the Atlantic.
“The contraband is then dropped into the water at a prearranged location and collected by smaller ‘daughter vessels’ – the drugs are then taken ashore and loaded on to waiting vehicles and we are constantly working to combat these operations.”
Mr Talbot said that Customs had achieved “exceptional results” in the past three years, seizing drugs worth an estimated €654 million since January 2023, including €10.5 million worth of cocaine at Rosslare Europort earlier this week.
He pointed to the close work between Customs and An Garda Síochána and the Irish Naval Service in joint operations as happened in the breaking up of a big smuggling operation aboard the MV Matthew.
“As a result of this operation, some 2,253kg of cocaine – over two tonnes of cocaine – with a value of €157 million were seized and eight suspects arrested and they were subsequently convicted and are serving sentences of between 13 and 20 years.”
Mr Talbot was speaking at the official commissioning ceremony in Kinsale for RCC Cosaint, which was part funded through a grant of €1.85 million from the European Anti-Fraud Office and built by Spanish shipbuilding firm the Armon Group, from Navias in Asturias.
