Agents tracked cocaine yacht for 12 months

NCA surveillance of suspected gang members brought them to focus their attention on Venezuela.

Naval Service personnel with the cocaine haul at Haulbowline Naval Base in Cork earlier this week. Picturte: Provision

The seeds that led to armed members of Ireland’s Naval Service boarding a yacht over 200 miles off the south west coast last Tuesday morning were sown in autumn last year, when Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) began to suspect a Leeds-based criminal gang was planning a major international drugs deal.

The NCA surveillance of suspected gang members brought them to focus their attention on Venezuela, which has emerged in recent years as ...