Border gang linked to €4 million Donegal drug haul as boat deal probed

A gang operating along the border region is being probed in connection with a €4 million cocaine find in Donegal last summer.

Cocaine weighing a total of around 60kg and with a street value in excess of €4 million was found washed up on two Donegal beaches in large parcels last July.

Last week, detectives from Milford pounced on two premises in dawn raids in Dundalk, County Louth they linked to the large drugs cache.

The Donegal-based detectives were aided by colleagues from Dundalk.

Items of potential evidential value to the investigation have been seized, including electronic devices and documents.

Various transactions and communications are being examined in a bid to piece together the jigsaw. A boat bought in the Dundalk area is at the centre of the investigation.

Gardai are exploring links between a Dundalk-based crew and drug-dealing gangs along the border, including in Donegal.

Links between this gang and larger, internationally-based groups are being explored.

It is believed that the drugs washed up in Donegal were transported from South America and was just a part of a large shipment of the drug destined to flood communities in this area.

A large-scale search operation was launched after the packages, wrapped in black plastic and bound with ropes, washed up at Ballyheirnan Beach in Fanad and Tramore Beach in Dunfanaghy in July.

It later emerged that a boat impounded as part of the Garda probe was being used by inexperienced seamen.

A large search operation ensued while a fishing vessel was impounded at Magheroarty by gardai.

The boat, a Cleopatra 38, is understood was advertised for sale in the lead up to the discovery of the drugs and, at the time, it did not appear as if the boat’s radar was operating in the weeks before the seizure.

“Gardaí in Milford continue to investigate all of the circumstances of the discovery of a number of packages along the North Donegal coastline,” a Garda spokesperson said.

“No arrests have been made at this time. Investigations are ongoing.”