Eight men jailed for involvement in Ireland's largest ever drugs haul
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Irish Examiner
06-07-2025
- Irish Examiner
Iran, Hezbollah, and the Kinahans in league to bring tonnes of cocaine through Ireland
Iran and the Lebanese terrorist group it funds, Hezbollah, worked with the Kinahan cartel in a foiled plot to traffic more than 2.2 tonnes of cocaine through Irish waters, authorities believe. Direct links between Hezbollah and the two Iranians sentenced on Friday for their involvement in a drug trafficking operation on the MV Matthew, the interception of which led to the biggest seizure of cocaine in the history of the State, are also suspected. Saied Hassani, 39, a third officer with significant sea faring experience and the former captain of the MV Matthew, Soheil Jelveh, 51, are believed to have direct links to the terror group Hezbollah. The voice directing operations on the MV Matthew remotely from Dubai, known in Signal and WhatsApp groups used by the crew as 'Captain Noah', named in court as Mehdi Bordbar, who is believed to be a UAE resident, is also believed to have direct links to Hezbollah. Mehdi Bordbar is believed to be alive in the Middle East and international investigations are now underway into his potential involvement in transnational organized crime. Venezuela, the South American country which the MV Matthew set sail from and off the coast of which its cocaine cargo was loaded by armed men at night, is also believed to have strong links to Iran, with its anti-US and anti-West ideology, and Hezbollah, the militant group it funds. Dave Caunter, Director of organized and emerging crime Interpol, Captain Darragh Kirwan, Head of Neval services Operations Command, Angela Willis, Assistant Commissioner organized and serious crime, Ruth Kennedy, Revenue and Sjoerd Top, Executive Director Maritime Analysis and Operation Centre – Narcotics (MAOC (N). Picture: Dan Linehan Gardaí are also now investigating the two 'persons of interest' identified by gardaí as travelling to Castletownbere in West Cork and buying the Castlemore shipping vessel for some €300,0000, the money sent to Ireland from Dubai. When this fishing boat ran aground off the Wexford coast in September 2023, it precipitated the collapse of the major drug trafficking operation. The Castlemore was to collect cocaine from the MV Matthew off the Irish coast in September 2023. But its wifi malfunctioned, its engine failed, and it ran aground on a notorious sandbank in stormy seas. Its two crew members were rescued by helicopter before being arrested. On Friday, eight men were sentenced to a combined 129 years in prison for their role in the drug trafficking operation. They are Dutch national Cumali Ozgen, 49, who was said to be the 'eyes and ears' of the cartel on board the MV Matthew and was described in court as a 'malign force'; Iranians Soheil Jelveh, 51, and Saeid Hassani, 39; Filipino Harold Estoesta, 31; Ukrainians Mykhailo Gavryk, and Vitaliy Vlasoi, both 32; and Vitaliy Lapa, aged 62; and UK national Jamie Harbron. Justice Melanie Greally accepted that none of the accused were operating in the higher echelons of the organised crime group which was directing the operation remotely. But they were 'committed to the success of the venture'. And maritime drug trafficking cannot take place without the expertise of experienced seafarers, which most of the men were, Justice Greally said. The Kinahan cartel is believed to be one of multiple organised crime groups involved in the MV Matthew operation. An operation of that scale would involve multiple crime groups and entities, Assistant Commissioner Angela Willis, head of organised and serious crime with An Garda Síochána, said. The financing of the operation is being investigated transnationally, she said, but it was 'reasonable to assume' that the Kinahan organized crime group was involved. Now that eight men have been sentenced for their involvement, the next phase of the investigation is underway, looking at other people in Ireland and abroad. It will also look at asset recovery for those involved. 'These are transglobal networks, they can interchange between each other. 'So we're looking at a number of transglobal potentials.' Speaking in Haulbowline at a press briefing on the record cocaine seizure after eight men were sentenced to some 129 years in jail for their involvement in the drug smuggling operation, Ast Chief Commissioner Willis said: 'Transnational organised crime groups know no borders. They prey on people's vulnerability for their own financial gain. People are dispensable and expendable when no longer of use to the criminal organization. Life is cheap and protecting their core criminal interests, which is money, is their key priority. To any person who consumes illegal, controlled drugs in a recreational setting, you are the ones funding these criminal organisations, you are directly linked to the misery and the suffering criminal organisations inflict on our communities. 'An Garda Síochána along with our national and international partners will never waiver in our determination to disrupt, degrade and dismantle these criminal organisations, with the ultimate aim to bring those responsible for addiction and death to justice.' Representatives from the Joint Task Force that intercepted the MV Matthew and uncovered the largest cocaine seizure in the history of the State, were at Haulbowline naval base in Cork today, with gardaí, the navy and revenue commissioners present. Representatives from Interpol and the maritime drug dismantling body MAOC-N also attended.
Irish Daily Mirror
05-07-2025
- Irish Daily Mirror
Defence Forces hunted cocaine ship MV Matthew for five days
The Defence Forces operation to seize the MV Matthew came within feet of disaster – and only the skill of an Air Corps pilot saved the day. Sources say the Air Corps helicopter that flew an Army Ranger Wing team to seize the cocaine-laden freighter off the south coast came so close to the ship that its blades were within feet of large cranes on it. An officer who commanded the air mission told us the chopper would have crashed if any of its blades struck the giant yellow cranes. 'If we clip the blade we're gone,' he said. 'In the best case, we might get to ditch it onto the vessel, or ditch it into the sea. But it's not good.' Now, as eight men begin jail terms over the September 2023 plan to smuggle the drugs here on the freighter, we can reveal new details about the Defence Forces plan, called Operation Piano, in which the ARW, Naval Service and Air Corps combined to seize the ship – and the cocaine on board. We can reveal that: · The ARW team fast-roped 55 feet from the chopper onto the deck in heavy seas in seconds · One of the crew turned the ship hard left just as the ARW operators were roping down · The special forces unit seized control of the freighter in just five minutes · A Naval Service commander was planning to open fire on the ship after it refused lawful orders to stop, and · An Air Corps gunner in the chopper used a GPMG machine gun to provide cover to the ARW team as they stormed the ship. The three arms of the Defence Forces teamed up with Revenue Customs and Gardai to form a joint task force to take down the MV Matthew, a Panamanian registered freighter that had sailed across the Atlantic Ocean with 2,200 kilos of cocaine - worth €157 million. But Gardai and Customs had received international intelligence on the plot – and worked with the Defence Forces to foil it on September 26. Operation Piano started five days earlier, on Friday, September 22 when the captain of the Naval Service ship LÉ William B Yeats was summoned to a short notice meeting at its HQ at Haulbowline in Co Cork. He and his crew had just spent two weeks at sea – but were ordered back out again. He told us: 'I was briefed in broad terms about an impending counter narcotics operation that was expected to happen off the south coast of Ireland within a matter of days and I was given instructions to return the ship immediately to sea.' The Irish Mirror's Crime Writers Michael O'Toole and Paul Healy are writing a new weekly newsletter called Crime Ireland. Click here to sign up and get it delivered to your inbox every week Within 90 minutes, the 44 crew on the €71 million ship were ready and it headed out to the Irish Sea. They had received intelligence that the Matthew and a trawler called the Castlemore were planning to meet up in Irish waters. It was suspected that the Matthew was the mother ship and the plan was for it to link up with the smaller Castlemore and transfer a massive drugs consignment over to it – which would then land it on the south coast. On Saturday, the ship picked up gardai and customs officers and then headed to patrol the area of sea where investigators believed the hand over would take place. The following evening, Sunday, the LÉ WB Yeats monitored both vessels off the coast of Wexford. Officers saw the Castlemore loiter in the suspected drop off area for around an hour. The captain told us he believed that the Matthew had dropped the drugs into the sea and the Castlemore was searching for them. Then, at around 11pm, the captain received reports a trawler had run aground off the coast – and he realised it was the Castlemore. He then took part in an operation to rescue two men from the stricken trawler. A Coast Guard helicopter winched the men from the trawler and they were then brought to the WB Yeats, which transported them to Rosslare port. The Yeats spent much of Monday monitoring the grounded Castlemore as searches took place for drugs in the waters close to it. But at 1am on Tuesday, September 26, it was ordered to chase down the Matthew, which was now off the coast of Waterford. The Yeats caught up with the Matthew at 5am – and immediately started to interrogate the crew over the radio. The Matthew's captain, Iranian Soheil Jelveh, 51, had been airlifted the day before in a medical emergency, and the Yeats' captain had to deal with his second in command. The officer ordered the crew member to head to Cork – but the Matthew claimed it was having engine problems and needed 48 hours for repairs. After several hours, the second in command eventually agreed to the Irish demands and set sail for Cork. 'It looked like things were going our way,' the Irish captain said. But an hour later, it became clear that the MV Matthew was bluffing – and it had instead set a course for Sierra Leone in west Africa. The Irish officer said: 'It was apparent to me then that I was in hot pursuit of that ship. I was authorised to use force, if necessary, to get that vessel to comply with my instruction. Ultimately, I arrived at the decision that force needed to be used.' It was now around midday on Tuesday and the officer ordered his crew to fire warning shots in the air from Steyr 5.56mm assault rifles. The crew ignored those shots, so the captain ordered his personnel to fire more shots – but this time from the heavier calibre 7.62mm machinegun. The captain told us the MV Matthew crew begged for their lives – but still ignored his commands to head to Cork. He said: 'Some of the messages came back were words like 'don't, don't shoot. There's people here who are innocent. We have families at home, wives, children. We don't want to die. And please deescalate.' 'My response was always that they were responsible for the outcome of this action, that they had within their power to deescalate. I would have immediately backed off had I seen the results that we needed to. I imagine it got quite frantic on board. And just in the interactions between myself and the guy at the end of the radio, he was doing everything in his power to put me off the course of action that I was on.' But the Irish captain knew he had to be firm - and that he had the law on his side. He had three other weapons on board: a 12.7mm heavy machine gun, a 20mm cannon and a 76mm main gun. He said: 'I have the options of using the heavy machine gun and 20 millimetre and 76 millimetre weapons. They were the options that were available to me.' He adds he was planning on firing the warning shots gradually closer to the Matthew – and was ready to actually hit the vessel with what is called disabling fire, that would mean targeting the engine. He said: 'You begin stepping your shots closer to the vessel, and if you're into the realm of disabling shots, then you are trying your best to hit critical machinery that would disable the vessel and stop the vessel in its tracks, obviously mitigating against personal injury.' But the Irish captain then got an order to cease the warning shots as the Air Corps were flying an Army Ranger Wing unit to the Matthew – to assault it from the skies. The special forces unit was flown to the MV Matthew on board an Air Corps AW139 helicopter. The senior flyer who commanded the mission said the Air Corps provided a two planes – a PC-12 and a Casa – for overwatch, while approximately nine ARW operators were loaded into the AW139 helicopter and flown to Waterford airport. At 12.40pm, then Tánaiste and Minister for Defence Micheal Martin gave approval for the mission and the helicopter carrying the assault team lifted off at 1pm. The officer said: 'We got radar contact around 25 miles off the South West coast. We were updated then that warning shots were being fired by our naval colleagues who were trying to get (The MV Matthew) to stop. We have planned all along there was going to be a compliant boarding so we weren't anticipating the offensive nature.' But they then realised the Matthew was not following orders – and got ready to deliver the ARW team in a non-compliant landing. That meant positioning the helicopter so an ARW sniper and an Air Corps gunner using a GMPG machinegun were able to provide cover as the special forces team fast roped onto the ship from 55 feet. The officer said: 'We came in low. The swell was around four metres, the wind was around 20 knots and (MV Matthew) was going around 10-15 knots. We've got 35-40 knots coming across the deck as we're getting ready to put ropes on. The swell was pitching and rolling the vessel, which made it more challenging. 'The deck was very challenging. There were antennae, we'd high cranes left and right. It made it probably the highest and fast rope we've ever done onto a vessel. 'And at times we've just barely a small bit of rope on. So it's an extremely challenging and dangerous insertion.' He said the team would normally use a winch to deploy personnel onto a ship – but the ARW unit needed to get on quickly. And that meant using fast ropes which - combined with the closeness of the cranes and antennae as well as the weather – made the insertion extremely risky. And it became even more dangerous when a crew member on the Matthew turned the Matthew towards the helicopter while the fast rope was actually happening. The Air Corps officer said: 'Fast roping on land is extremely dangerous. But going out to ship in quite challenging maritime conditions with 35/40 knots across the deck, she's rolling and pitching with these two big masts that are very, very close and then they decide to turn into us. 'So we're constantly moving, trying to maintain our position on the deck. Once the guy goes on to the rope it's extremely dangerous, if he comes off at 50/55 feet, it's something not even worth thinking about.' He confirmed the AW139's blades were only a matter of feet from the cranes when the ARW team was fast roping onto the MV Matthew. Only the skill of the pilot prevented a catastrophe. The officer said: 'If we clip the blade we're gone. In the best case, we might get to ditch it onto the vessel, or ditch it into the sea. But it's not good.' The ARW team took a matter of seconds to rope onto the ship, a senior special forces commander told us. He revealed they had control of the ship within five minutes. The first operators to land on the ship raced to the bridge - the most important area of the vessel. He said: 'The priority will be to control the vessel. That means it can't be steered in a different direction. It can't be rammed into another vessel, or it can't be scuttled. 'We had full control within about five minutes of the first personnel being on the deck. ' He said he knew once the soldiers landed safely it was all over for the ship's crew. He said: 'We had full confidence that once we got the guys on to the deck, there wasn't going to be anything on the ship that they couldn't deal with. We've got really well trained people. Once we managed to get them onto the deck, it would be over.' Once the bridge was under the ARW control, operators realised some of the crew were trying to burn the cocaine in a lifeboat. The team ran over and used fire extinguishers to put out the blaze – and save the cocaine as evidence. And one of the ARW soldiers then took control of the massive freighter – and sailed it to Cork harbour, where gardai were waiting to board it. The senior ARW officer said: 'We have a lot of personnel who are dedicated to working in the maritime environment and they've got really specialist qualifications in that area. We had personnel on board that day who were able to take the ship under control and bring it into Cork.'
The Irish Sun
04-07-2025
- The Irish Sun
Plot to nail Irish mobsters ‘higher up chain' in mega €157m coke swoop amid new suspect details after 8 underlings caged
GARDAI are working to nail the Irish gangsters involved in the attempt to smuggle €157 million of cocaine into the country as their underlings were locked up for a combined 129 years. The eight men involved in the massive botched drug trafficking operation were handed down sentences of 13.5 to 20 years at the 7 The MV Matthew was stormed leading to Ireland's record seizure of the drug Credit: Alamy Live News 7 Some €157 million of cocaine was found Credit: Gardai 7 The major operation took place in September 2023 Credit: Irish Defence Forces This includes an Irish suspect who helped acquire the second ship which was planned to meet He also issued the two men in charge of this 'sistership', named The Castlemore, with instructions using the handle 'Rain Man' on messaging groups. It's understood that this man fled to READ MORE IN NEWS A source told The Irish Sun: 'There are a number of individuals involved who worked higher up in the operation. 'A cell structure was used to specifically protect those people. But the gardai's investigations into them are very much ongoing.' The 2.2 tonnes of coke were intercepted and seized in September 2023 by a joint garda, Revenue and The six men onboard the MV Matthew, a Panamanian cargo ship, were hired in Dubai by a transnational organised Most read in Irish News They then flew to The MV Matthew ignored instructions from the LE William Butler Yeats naval vessel five times before it was stormed by Irish Navy Rangers on September 26 that year. Moment MV Matthew is lead to shore to be impounded after Irish Army Rangers storm container ship The original plan was that the MV Matthew would deliver the drugs to the second ship, the Castlemore. But rough seas and a number of difficulties caused the vessel to miss the connection and later to run aground on the coast of Wexford. The six on the MV Matthew all pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine for sale or supply between 24 and 26 September 2023. At sentencing, He was in communication with his bosses in the UAE every two to three days and was set to get a €50,000 bonus if they were successful. 7 Cumali Ozgen was caged for 20 years Credit: ProVision 7 Soheil Jelveh was handed down a 17.5 year sentence Credit: Journalist Collect Filipino Harold Estoesta, 31, was caged for 18 years after he engaged with the coast guard on the MV Matthew saying they would comply with orders to head towards He also ordered for the The Iranian captain of the ship and qualified maritime engineer Soheil Jelveh was He feigned an injury and was winched by the He had two suitcases, four phones including a satellite mobile and $53,298 in cash when taken away. 'VIGOROUS ATTEMPTS TO EVADE' Ukrainian Vitaliy Vlasoi, 33, who made 'vigorous attempts to evade' authorities on the boat as well as destroy drugs for criminal organisation was His fellow countryman Mykhailo Gavryk, 32, received 14 years' imprisonment after he admitted to moving the drugs on board the ship as he claimed he was 'following instructions', but cops accept he knew the least about the overall operation. Saeid Hassani, 40, who was the third officer, received a 15-year sentence. Two other men, who were on the boat the Castlemore that had been purchased in Castletownbere to collect drugs from the main vessel, were also sentenced for attempting to possess cocaine for sale or supply. 'MESSAGE IS CLEAR' Ukrainian national Vitaliy Lapa, 62, with an address at Rudenka, Repina Str in Berdyansk, received a sentence of 14.5 years while Jamie Harbron, 31, from Billingham in the UK, got 13.5 years. Detective Superintendent Joe O'Reilly from the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau said: 'To those involved in drug trafficking the message is clear, the full force of the Irish State supported by our international partners is against you. 'The reality facing you is security interdictions, special investigations, the Special Criminal Court, lengthy sentences and asset seizure.' 7 Vitaliy Vlasoi made vigorous attempts to evade authorities 7 Mykhalio Gavryk was jailed for 14 years Credit: 2023 PA Media, All Rights Reserved
