Man sentenced to 10 years in prison for smuggling cocaine worth €21.6 million from Brazil to Limerick

After his arrest, Petkov told gardaí he had gambling debts of €37,000 and was to be paid €150,000 for handling the drug shipment on board the Maltese-registered vessel, the MV Verila.

The drugs were found when Irish customs officers, acting on confidential information, searched the ship after it docked at the port of Foynes, County Limerick, on December 19, 2023, after leaving Brazil, where the drugs were loaded, via Canada.

Judge Daly said Petkov had “facilitated internationally organized crime for significant reward” and that Petkov’s debts may have made him more vulnerable to involvement in the criminal “enterprise”.

Detective Garda Adrian Cahill, of the Limerick Divisional Drugs Unit, testified that the €21 million cocaine transported was “pure cocaine, with a potential street value of five times that amount” estimated at 105 million euros.

Sentencing

Judge Daly said Petkov, who was assisted in court by a Bulgarian interpreter, had played a “very significant role in transporting a huge quantity of cocaine across continents” and that he considered a sentence of 15 years in prison was appropriate.

The judge said he was reducing the sentence to 10 years after “taking into consideration the accused’s early guilty pleas, his co-operation with the gardaí, his confessions which exonerated other members of the crew and their previous good character.”

However, Judge Daly said Petkov, in his view, “was not entitled” to a sentence less than the mandatory minimum of 10 years for possessing drugs worth €13,000 or more, which under legislation, can be reduced at the discretion of the judge. judges.

“I have to take into consideration here the element of the importation of drugs, as well as the principle of deterrence in relation to drugs in general,” the judge said.

“The accused is not an Irish national and as such a prison sentence will be more difficult for him, but that does not persuade me to impose a sentence less than the prescribed minimum,” he added.

Judge Daly said he considered the value of the drugs a “critical factor” in his decision. He said: “The accused must have known he was involved in trafficking drugs in huge quantities, thousands of miles and across continents.

“He (Petkov) assisted in loading the drugs onto the ship and he controlled the drugs on board,” Judge Daly added.

Background of the case

Petkov, who had no previous convictions, was arrested three days after the ship docked in Foynes after customs officers discovered 12 large bales of cocaine hidden in an air-conditioned room on board the ship at Foynes port.

Prosecuting lawyer Lily Buckley said Petkov was approached by unidentified “security” people at the port of Antoniana, Brazil, to facilitate the drug smuggling operation. Petkov said he hid the drugs under beds in unoccupied cabins of the ship as it continued to the port of Santos, Brazil, and the port of Hamilton, Canada, before reaching its final destination in Foynes, Co. from Limerick.

Petkov said he tied the drug bales with rope and attached life jackets and a transmitter. He was given a cell phone to stay in touch with drug traffickers in Bolivia and Paraguay and asked to throw the bales of cocaine overboard when the ship reached the pier in Glin, County of Limerick, before arriving at the port of Foynes.

The 12 bales contained 308.6 kilos of cocaine, packaged in 306 separate packages, worth €21,604,891. Petkov told Gardaí he did not make the disembarkation at Glin because when the ship reached the location he became concerned when he did not see anyone there to collect the drugs.

Detective Garda Cahill said Petkov “was involved in the loading of the drugs, he had complete control of the drugs on board the vessel, he was the point of contact for others and he was fully responsible for directing the operations on board” .

Det. Garda also told the court that Petkov’s DNA was found on a “sophisticated” light tag on a transmitter he attached to the drug bales.

Petkov, a qualified electrician, regularly worked on five-month contracts at sea on cargo ships, but he told gardaí it was the first time he had been involved in drug trafficking and that he had no received no payment for this drug trafficking.

Gardaí said they found no evidence that Petkov received any of the €150,000 he agreed to accept to smuggle the drugs.