Eamon Dillon

I don't think they were scrambled last minute.

I mean, these plots, I mean, if you've ever tried to organize a stag night in Newcastle or a hen night in Clifton, you know how hard it is.

So, I mean, if you're trying to get, you know, 30 people to coordinate across an ocean and to get a, you know, to get a boat and someone to drive it and someone to load and offload and somebody to...

to coordinate things it's not that easy like it doesn't happen quickly I mean these these plots at the very least I would imagine there's months and months go into the planning you might have multiple similar plots going at the same time so there's an economy of scale for an organization doing something like that but for the individuals involved it would be it would be an ongoing kind of it would be it's a long project I don't think it's scrambled at the last minute I mean maybe maybe they were maybe they were trying to offload it quicker than they should have been or something like that which is kind of

to their detriment in the end.

If you read our former colleague Des Eakins' book all about the pirates in the south coast and west coast of Ireland, Des' books are brilliant.

Like back from the 1700s, there was nothing but smuggling going on.

A lot of it is, or just being unlucky.

I mean, Tullamook Bay, you know, they put the diesel in the petrol engine.

Or weather, of course, as well, is a huge thing.

You know, your boat gets a puncture, like, you know, the inflatable part anyway.

Or, you know, the engine breaks down and all of a sudden you have to make contact with a local who's going, why are these guys looking to get this boat repaired in the middle of winter?

I mean, it's supposed to so many things can go wrong.

And of course, if your crew is made up of fellas with drink and drug issues, you know, OK, they might be fine for the first day or two.

But if you have to keep them hanging on for another week, maybe things will start to unravel a bit.

But he also talked about how he was basically recruited by Gary Ward.

He was shown how to mix the drugs and bag them and sell them.

He was threatened with an iron bar that he couldn't refuse in order to go to Dublin at any time to pick up heroin.

And that he would be expected to do that on a frequent basis.

And he was given a phone and told to turn it on at 10 a.m.