Filipino Seafarer jailed in Ireland for role in €157-M cocaine smuggling case
Harold Estoesta was among eight men convicted in connection with the drug trafficking operation involving the Panamanian-flagged cargo vessel MV Matthew, which was intercepted off the Irish coast in September 2023.
Authorities said it was the largest cocaine seizure in Irish history.
According to Irish officials, the vessel departed from Curaçao, off the coast of Venezuela, and crossed the Atlantic before entering Irish territorial waters. The interception was carried out through a coordinated operation involving the Irish police (Gardaí), customs, and the Defence Forces.
An elite unit from the Army Ranger Wing boarded the ship in rough sea conditions after the Irish Navy pursued the vessel as it attempted to evade capture.
Dutch national Cumali Ozgen received the longest sentence of 20 years. Other individuals convicted included two Ukrainian and two Iranian nationals, with sentences ranging from 13.5 to 17.5 years.
Two other men, initially rescued from a separate trawler believed to be preparing to rendezvous with the MV Matthew, were also sentenced in connection with the case.
The court said the operation was linked to a transnational drug cartel with significant resources and global reach. Authorities added that the cartel operated using a cell structure designed to continue operations even if one part was disrupted.
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Filipino Times
a day ago
- Filipino Times
Filipino Seafarer jailed in Ireland for role in €157-M cocaine smuggling case
A Filipino seafarer has been sentenced to 18 years in prison in Ireland for his role in the attempted smuggling of 2.2 tonnes of cocaine valued at more than €157 million. Harold Estoesta was among eight men convicted in connection with the drug trafficking operation involving the Panamanian-flagged cargo vessel MV Matthew, which was intercepted off the Irish coast in September 2023. Authorities said it was the largest cocaine seizure in Irish history. According to Irish officials, the vessel departed from Curaçao, off the coast of Venezuela, and crossed the Atlantic before entering Irish territorial waters. The interception was carried out through a coordinated operation involving the Irish police (Gardaí), customs, and the Defence Forces. An elite unit from the Army Ranger Wing boarded the ship in rough sea conditions after the Irish Navy pursued the vessel as it attempted to evade capture. Dutch national Cumali Ozgen received the longest sentence of 20 years. Other individuals convicted included two Ukrainian and two Iranian nationals, with sentences ranging from 13.5 to 17.5 years. Two other men, initially rescued from a separate trawler believed to be preparing to rendezvous with the MV Matthew, were also sentenced in connection with the case. The court said the operation was linked to a transnational drug cartel with significant resources and global reach. Authorities added that the cartel operated using a cell structure designed to continue operations even if one part was disrupted.
Middle East Eye
2 days ago
- Middle East Eye
For Netflix, the Srebrenica massacre is a joke - and Gaza is the sequel
Once upon a time, "Never again" was uttered with trembling sincerity. It was the mantra forged in the ashes of Auschwitz, a promise to generations unborn that the horrors of genocide would never be repeated. But today, in an age of digital spectacle and political impunity, "Never again" has become "Ever again". And we are witnessing a grotesque inversion of memory. From the Warsaw Ghetto to Srebrenica to Gaza, the imagery of genocide - especially the suffering of children - has not only lost its sacredness, it has become fodder for mockery, comedy and the most cynical forms of entertainment. This is no accident, but a reflection of how unresolved histories and unaddressed root causes have created a culture desensitised to violence and hungry for spectacle. In a shocking display of insensitivity, the Dutch Netflix comedy Football Parents features a scene that compares the victims of the Srebrenica genocide to clumsy child football players, turning the Bosnian genocide into a punchline. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Mocking victims More than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys were murdered under the watch of Dutch UN peacekeepers in 1995. Dutch soldiers not only failed to prevent genocide but also participated in committing it. Now, Dutch television mocks them. The scandal runs deeper. The Netherlands has been linked to three major genocides - the Holocaust, the Bosnian genocide, and now the genocide in Gaza. Incredibly, Football Parents mocked children's football skills by comparing them to genocide victims - a grotesque parallel to the 1993 killing of 74 Bosnian children The Dutch state is currently being sued for failing to prevent genocide in Gaza. Meanwhile, a recent study revealed that nearly half a million Dutch citizens took part in the Holocaust. Rather than confront its violent past, Dutch media recycles it as "dark humour". Incredibly, Football Parents mocked children's football skills by comparing them to genocide victims - a grotesque parallel to 12 April 1993, when 74 Bosnian children were killed by Serb shells while playing football on a school field in Srebrenica. This goes beyond tasteless comedy - it is genocide denial masquerading as satire. Denial is not merely an afterthought; it is an integral part of the genocidal process itself, as seen in Israeli TikTok influencers who produce viral "prank" videos feigning donations for Palestinian children in Gaza, only to reveal the appeal as a cruel joke. These clips have been viewed by millions, turning the real suffering of children under relentless bombardment into nothing more than a callous punchline. The unspoken truth How did we arrive here? From solemn commemoration to commodified suffering? From mourning child victims to ridiculing them on screen? The hard truth is that we never truly moved away from genocide. Srebrenica genocide survivors draw parallels with Gaza 30 years after massacre Read More » There was never a "Never again" because there was never a reckoning. The root causes - racism, colonialism, dehumanisation, militarism - were never dismantled. Instead, the same ideologies that fuelled the Holocaust found new expressions in new times, targeting new bodies. Gregory Stanton, founder of Genocide Watch, outlined 10 stages of genocide - classification, symbolisation, discrimination, dehumanisation, organisation, polarisation, preparation, persecution, extermination, and denial - that were never internalised by the so-called international community. If anything, they have become background noise and their warning signs normalised in political discourse and media narratives. Even linguistically, the promise was always fragile. Say "Never again" often enough, and the "N" erodes - until all that remains is "ever again". A mantra turned into prophecy: "Forever again." A lost innocence One of the most iconic images of the Holocaust shows a young Jewish boy in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943, his arms raised in surrender, fear etched into his face. Taken by a Nazi photographer, the photo captured the innocence of childhood crushed under the weight of state violence and hatred. It became a symbol of innocence violated and a rallying cry for remembrance. But today, that same innocence is up for ridicule. Follow Middle East Eye's live coverage of the Israel-Palestine war In the West - particularly in cultural output from nations complicit in past genocides - the suffering of children has become fair game. The sacred is now profane. Children have always held a certain "entertaining" value in western media. Their pain is photogenic, their tears emotionally potent. But there is a fine line between representing suffering and exploiting it. And today, that line is not just crossed - it is obliterated. In the age of livestreamed war and algorithm-driven engagement, genocide is no longer just a crime - it is content. The Obmana - the Bosnian genocide - was the first genocide broadcast live on television. Harrowing images streamed into homes around the globe, laying bare the catastrophic failure of the international community to protect its victims. The genocide in Gaza has become the first fully digital genocide. Smartphones capture the last moments of children's lives in real time. Livestreams show entire families buried under rubble - only for those images to be drowned out by satire, denial, or worse, parody. This is not a bug in the system. It is a feature of how power operates today. The same states and institutions that fail to prevent genocide now allow the mockery of its victims to flourish in their cultural industries. The price of naivety The world watched in stunned disbelief as western power structures - political, media, and academic - betrayed their sacred "Never again" vow amid Gaza's unfolding genocide. By perpetuating this dehumanisation, Netflix is repeating the same propaganda that has historically preceded genocide But this betrayal has deeper roots, stretching back to Bosnia and Obmana, where the West effectively legalised and rewarded genocide. The proof? Srebrenica is still controlled by the very Serb forces who slaughtered Bosniaks. Impunity for genocide paved the way for its denial. The University of Vienna, under the leadership of Rector Sebastian Schutze, remains a glaring example of this. To this day, it refuses to issue an apology to the Mothers of Srebrenica for its documented role in genocide denial. Gaza confirms the grim truth: once we excuse one genocide, we enable the next. Despite an outcry in Bosnian media and direct petitions demanding that Netflix remove content that ridicules the Bosnian genocide, the platform has refused to act. This inaction shows utter contempt for the value of Muslim lives - echoing the dehumanising rhetoric recently amplified by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who remarked that Israel is "doing the dirty work for all of us". War on Gaza: Did we learn nothing from the Srebrenica genocide? Read More » Now, as the world scrolls through the Gaza genocide on their feeds, Netflix offers its audience Dutch-produced content mocking the last one - inviting viewers to laugh at the "good work" the Dutch UN peacekeepers carried out in Srebrenica - murdering Bosniak boys and men. Netflix exposes the twisted hierarchy of white supremacy, where even blonde, blue-eyed European Muslim genocide victims are denied full humanity, deemed unworthy of the series' removal by its leadership, Reed Hastings and David Hyman. By perpetuating this dehumanisation, Netflix is repeating the same propaganda that has historically preceded genocide. Many Bosniaks were shocked when the University of Vienna refused to apologise for its role in genocide denial. Now, they are utterly appalled to see Netflix mocking their dead. This betrayal cuts especially deep because, like much of the world, they had naively believed in the "Never again" promise - only to learn it never applied to them. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Middle East Eye
2 days ago
- Middle East Eye
UN peacekeepers failed to protect us in Bosnia. They will fail in Gaza too
On 11 July 2003, large posters appeared on the streets of Sarajevo, showing a young woman staring directly at the camera. Handwritten in English across the image were the words: No teeth...? A moustache...? Smell like shit...? Bosnian girl! At the bottom, a caption explained: "Graffiti by an unknown Dutch soldier on the wall of the army barracks in Potocari, Srebrenica, 1994/95. Royal Netherlands Army troops, part of the UN Protection Force (Unprofor) in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995, were responsible for the Srebrenica safe area." The work, which gained international recognition after being exhibited in galleries around the world, was created by Sarajevo-based artist Sejla Kameric, using a photograph taken by local photographer Tarik Samarah in Potocari sometime after 2001. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Three decades later, I hear renewed calls for UN peacekeepers to be deployed to Gaza and other parts of Palestine. But I struggle to see what benefit that would bring to people living under occupation, denied even their most basic rights - including the right to live. The UN's betrayal Eight years before Kameric created her artwork, on the morning of 3 July 1995, military and police forces led by convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic entered the city of Srebrenica. After more than three years under siege, tens of thousands of residents fled. The genocide in Srebrenica was committed in plain sight of UN peacekeepers, who failed not only to prevent it but even to attempt to stop it They moved towards the UN base in Potocari, desperate for protection and hoping that the several hundred Dutch peacekeepers stationed there since 1993 would provide it. Soon, more than 6,000 people were crammed inside the UN compound, with another 20,000 sheltering in nearby buildings. On 11 July 1995, Mladic's troops began separating men from women, children, and the elderly. Buses arrived to transport around 25,000 people out of Srebrenica to areas outside Mladic's control. The remaining men - more than 8,000 - were taken away, and most were never seen alive again. Those whose remains were found, sometimes just a single bone, are now buried in the Memorial Centre, the site of the former UN base. Seven identified bones will be buried on 11 July this year, 30 years after the genocide. Thousands more are still missing. For Bosnians, on that sweltering July day in 1995, even the idea of UN protection died in Potocari. The genocide in Srebrenica was committed in plain sight of UN peacekeepers, who failed not only to prevent it but even to attempt to stop it. The primary concern for the UN and the international community became how to evacuate the Dutch soldiers and international personnel from Srebrenica. They did not request reinforcements, although they could have. They did not use their weapons to defend civilians. They stood by as people were separated, murdered, expelled, raped and robbed. For years after that summer, no one entered the UN base in Potocari. When people finally gained access in 2001, they found graffiti left behind by Dutch soldiers - including the one used in Kameric's artwork. Graffiti scrawled by a Dutch UN peacekeeper in Potocari during the 1994-1995 deployment, left, later incorporated into Sejla Kameric's 2003 artwork 'Bosnian Girl', right, photographed by Tarik Samarah (Supplied) When exactly the graffiti was written is unclear, but it tells us how Dutch soldiers saw the women who were - like everyone else in Srebrenica - trapped in a besieged city, holding on to their bare lives. In October 1995, Human Rights Watch published its first report on Srebrenica and the UN's role. It concluded: "Although the safe areas may have been created with good intentions, in actuality, they became UN-administered ethnic ghettos." (Un)safe areas After the war ended with the signing of the peace agreement in December 1995, survivors from Srebrenica began their long struggle for justice. They demanded - and continue to demand - that the bodies of all the disappeared be found and identified, and that those responsible for the crimes be brought to justice. Part of this struggle, led primarily by survivor women's associations, focused on holding the UN and the Dutch battalion accountable. War on Gaza: Did we learn nothing from the Srebrenica genocide? Read More » Some even launched court cases in the Netherlands. In one of the first, 11 plaintiffs accused the Netherlands and the UN of failing to prevent genocide. But in July 2008, a Dutch court dismissed the case, stating that it had no jurisdiction over the UN, citing the organisation's immunity from prosecution for crimes committed during missions. Following this ruling, a group of survivors filed a new lawsuit, this time against the Dutch government. They argued that, although the soldiers were part of a UN mission, the Dutch government still had de facto control over its troops in Srebrenica. Dutch courts initially dismissed this case too, claiming that the Dutch battalion peacekeepers were acting under a UN mandate and were therefore not the responsibility of the Dutch state - a catch-22. Finally, after years of legal battles and several court rulings, in 2019 the Dutch Supreme Court found the state partially responsible - but only for 10 percent of the deaths of 350 Bosnian men who had been expelled from the UN compound. The court reasoned that there was a 10 percent chance the Dutch soldiers could have prevented the killings had they acted differently. Follow Middle East Eye's live coverage of the Israel-Palestine war During the war in Bosnia, six cities - including Srebrenica and Sarajevo, where I live - were declared UN "safe areas" by the UN Security Council. Peacekeepers were deployed but with no clear mandate, including on whether troops were authorised to use force to protect we, the civilians, learnt was that they were not. Or rather, that it depended on individual commanders. While we were dying, UN officials held endless meetings, gave promises, expressed shock and disbelief - but did nothing to stop the crimes. UN peacekeeping missions have long been mired in controversy, wherever they have been deployed. One of the most serious and persistent issues is the sexual exploitation of women. UN peacekeepers are armed forces drawn from different countries and are required to follow the policies of their respective states. Often, they know little to nothing about the people or places where they are deployed. At the same time, they are instructed not to interfere with locals - a setup that creates, as conflict scholar Severine Autesserre writes in her book Peaceland, "a pervasive power disparity between the interveners and their intended beneficiaries". Moreover, peacekeeping deployments are costly, and the funds rarely reach local communities. In Sarajevo, another "safe area" during the 1990s, UN soldiers from Unprofor were a constant presence - white tanks, blue helmets, full protection gear. Armed, well-fed, and with enough water not only to drink but also to shower - a luxury for us - they were visible on the streets. Usually, we would see them driving around or standing aside, watching us run for our lives - or be killed. At one point, they began placing improvised barricades around the city to serve as visual protection against snipers. That seemed to be the maximum they were prepared to do. Each of these containers bore a large black sign: UN - a stark reminder that even when real protection disappears, the UN's public image endures. Someone later scrawled "forgiven" in red paint beneath it - a haunting commentary. Illusion of protection The role of the UN and its peace forces has remained problematic, and I see no reason to believe the Palestinian case will be any different. Deploying UN peacekeepers implies a false symmetry - that two sides are at war and must be kept apart. It ignores decades of settler-colonialism, apartheid, land theft, incarceration, violence, and systematic human rights violations. Rather than addressing these widespread abuses, it covers them with a blue lid. There are other proposals, such as the use of private security - an even worse and less accountable option, as seen in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. Deploying UN peacekeepers implies a false symmetry - that two sides are at war and must be kept apart. The genocide of Palestinians, ongoing for decades and now at its most extreme, demands different solutions. And if we look to the recent past, we must admit that the international community has yet to find any. So far, every external intervention has brought more misery for local people - and more profit for those who intervene. Real solutions require a new way of looking at conflict and militarisation, grounded in the lessons of the past, including the Bosnian experience. More importantly, they must come from survivors themselves, based on their own knowledge and lived reality. But no solution is possible without taking the first step: a total ceasefire. Until that happens, discussions about peacekeepers or similar proposals are a distraction - a way of prolonging the violence, rather than stopping it. And they will serve to further extend the permission granted by the West to Israel to kill. On the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, let us remember: peace comes with freedom, not the UN. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
