Courts

Man jailed for 10 years after admitting smuggling €21.6m cocaine on cargo ship from Brazil

Kamen Petkov told gardaí he was to be paid €150,000 for managing drug shipment

Kamen Petkov (36) showed no emotion in court. Photograph: Facebook
Kamen Petkov (36) showed no emotion in court. Photograph: Facebook
David Raleigh
Tue Dec 17 2024 - 11:54

A Bulgarian man has been jailed for 10 years after he admitted smuggling €21.6 million of cocaine on board a cargo ship, which sailed from Brazil to Ireland last year.

In delivering the sentence at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Colin Daly said that the defendant, Kamen Petkov, had been in control of “such a large quantity of drugs that it was impossible not to conclude that thousands of lives would have been affected by such a volume of drugs”.

Following his arrest on December 22nd last, Petkov told gardaí he was to be paid €150,000 for managing the drug shipment on the MV Verila, which sailed from Antoniana Port, Brazil to Foynes Port, Co Limerick, on December 19th, 2023.

Judge Daly said Petkov, (36), had “facilitated organised crime internationally for a significant reward”.

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Petkov told gardaí he had amassed a gambling debt of €37,000 and Judge Daly said Petkov’s debt may have made him more vulnerable to involving himself in the criminal “enterprise”.

Det Gda Adrian Cahill, Limerick divisional drugs unit, told the court that the drugs recovered from the ship were considered by forensic examiners to be “pure cocaine, with a potential value of five times that amount on the street” estimated at €105 million.

Petkov, who had no previous convictions, was apprehended by gardaí after the ship was searched by Irish customs officers using sniffer dogs. The drugs were found hidden in an air-conditioning room after the vessel docked at Foynes Port.

The married father of one showed no emotion as he was led away to begin his prison sentence, which was backdated to December 22nd, 2023, the date he first entered custody.