Operation Seabight,[1] or Sea Bight,[2] is the codename used to describe the tracking and eventual seizure of up to €750 million[a][b] of cocaine off the Irish coast in November 2008, originally thought to have been the largest such haul in the history of Ireland and one of the largest in Europe in 2008.[3] The figures were later revised to show that this was in fact the second largest haul in Irish history.[4] The seizure took place off the south-west coast and eclipsed the discovery of €440 million of cocaine near Mizen Head in July 2007. A 60-foot (18 m) yacht containing more than seventy bales of the substance was seized by a team of European anti-drugs agencies led by Irish authorities. Three men were also apprehended and later each was sentenced to ten years in jail.[4]
The seizure came just one day after the fourth man involved in Ireland's previous record haul in 2007 was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. 1.5 tonnes (1.7 short tons) of cocaine valued at €440 million washed up on the Cork coast near Mizen Head following an attempted trafficking scam that failed when one of the men filled their petrol-powered motor engine with diesel. The inflatable launch overturned and dumped sixty-two bales of cocaine into the sea. Three of the men involved in the operation were sentenced earlier in 2008 for a total of eighty-five years.
- ^ Lavery, Don; Ralph Riegel (8 November 2008). "Yacht was doomed to capture from moment it left Caribbean". Irish Independent. Retrieved 8 November 2008.
- ^ McAleese, Deborah (7 November 2008). "Drugs haul was destined for Northern Ireland". The Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 8 November 2008.
- ^ "Cocaine Worth £403m Seized at Sea". Sky News. 7 November 2008. Retrieved 8 November 2008. [dead link]
- ^ a b "Three jailed over €400m Cork cocaine haul". RTÉ. 8 May 2009. Retrieved 8 May 2009.