Coastguard officer reveals suspicions in cocaine trial
The €440m cocaine trial in Cork heard today that the first coastguard officer at the scene suspected it was a drugs drop gone wrong.
Ireland’s biggest ever drugs trial went into its fourth day at Cork Circuit Criminal Court in a case related to drugs with an estimated value of €440m.
Three Englishmen, Perry Wharrie, aged 48, of 60, Pyrles Lane, Essex, England, Joseph Daly, aged 41, from 9 Carrisbrook Avenue, Bexley, Kent, and Martin Wanden, aged 45, of no fixed abode, all deny the charges of possessing cocaine, possessing it with intent to sell or supply, and having it for sale or supply when its street value exceeded €13,000 on July 2, 2007, at Dunlough Bay, Mizen, Goleen, Co Cork.
Dermot Sheehan of the Irish Coastguard responded to a call to go to the O’Donovan home at Carrigeengour, Goleen, County Cork, where a young man had called for help after almost drowning.
“I went in to the kitchen and sat down and started to speak with the young lad to ascertain exactly what was after happening. I noticed his hands were white and kind of shrivelled and he had some scratch marks on his hands. He gave his name as Gerard O’Leary (from Monaghan). He said he went fishing with two friends, Gary and James.
“I tried to ascertain from where they had left. He could not remember. He started empty dry retching. He said he swallowed a lot of water. He was under the water. He thought he was going to be sucked into a cave and drowned. He was in the water for approximately one hour.
“When I went outside I said to John O’Connor (colleague), 'there is something not adding up here',” Mr Sheehan testified.
Later in his testimony, the witness recalled saying to a member of An Garda Siochana: “I would not be surprised if this was a drugs drop gone wrong.”
Mr Sheehan and Mr O’Connor drove down towards Dunlough Bay and saw two men walking up from the shore, and there was a green jeep parked in the general area.
“We called to the two people. They acted in a way that was, to me, evasive insofar as they looked out to sea and didn’t give us much attention. One of the men had a mark on the back of his head with fresh blood, something that would be consistent with a cut.
“One of the men said, 'there is a guy down there in the water in a lifejacket and he needs saving now'. He emphasised the words, 'saving now',” he said.
Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin and the jury of nine men and three women were also told that, shortly after the conversations with the man in the farmhouse and the two men on the road, the lifeboat rescued a man from the sea and that this man was winched to a helicopter from the lifeboat.
The case continues.
