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Notorious Dunlough Bay cocaine smuggler STILL in Irish prison 16 years after seizure

The English career criminal remains in the high-security Portlaoise Prison, where he has served his time since his conviction in 2008.

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A KEY player in the Ireland’s record cocaine haul at Dunlough Bay in 2007 is still serving time in a high-security prison 16 years later.

Martin Wanden had to be plucked from the water by rescue services while 62 bales of almost pure cocaine, each weighing 25 kilos, floated around him in West Cork.

The English career criminal remains in the high-security Portlaoise Prison, where he has served his time since his conviction in 2008, originally getting a 30-year sentence.

This was reduced to 23 years on appeal in 2019 and Wanden, now aged 61, can look forward to being released next year.

The Dunlough Bay seizure was worth between €108 million and €440 million on which the gang had spent €330,000 to buy and ship to Ireland.

The sheer scale of the operation in which a catamaran Lucky Day was bought in Miami to sail the 1.5 ton of drugs across the Atlantic made it a huge story.

The illegal consignment has since been ovetaken by the recent cargo of 2.25 tons of cocaine on board the MV Matthew seized on the high seas by the Army Ranger Wing.

Originally from Kent, Wanden had picked a number of relatively minor criminal convictions up until he was in his late 20s.

But in 2005 at the age of 42 he was convicted of drug smuggling in France and sentenced to two years imprisonment in his absence.

By the time of his arrest in Ireland Wanden had been living the millionaire lifestyle in South Africa, where his wife died in tragic circumstances before his trial began in Cork.

The other key player in the shipment, Perry Wharrie also got a 30-year sentence, later reduced to 17 years is no longer in custody in Ireland.

It had been expected he would be transferred to the UK where he had served a long stretch in prison for his part in a robbery in which an off-duty policeman was killed.

At the time of his arrest following the failed bid to land the drugs at Dunlough Bay, Wharrie had been unlawfully at large after breaking contact with his probation office after his release on licence.

Wharrie maintained his reputation as a hard man while serving his time with Ireland’s gangsters and at point clashed with Brian ‘The Tosser’ Meehan in Portlaoise Prison.

There was heavy security surrounding their trial in 2008 at Cork Circuit Criminal Court where there were reports a gang of ex-soldiers had been hired to help them escape.

Others involved in the plot such Gerard Hagan from Liverpool pleaded guilty to his role and got ten years, but went on the run after being transferred to a UK prison before his arrest again in Spain in 2013.

The leader of the conspiracy Mike Daly, a former London met police officer got a 22-year sentence in the UK for the plot to bring the drugs through Ireland.

His brother Joseph Daly went on trial with Wanden and Wharrie and got a 25-year sentence which was upheld on appeal.

Daly had been able to swim ashore after one of the gang’s dinghys got into trouble when diesel instead of petrol was put into one of its engines.

Wanden and Wharrie would have spent part of their time on Portlaoise prison’s E1 landing when John Gilligan was serving his time there.

Fellow compatriot Michael Tune, who got 12 years for his role in attempting to ship €50 million worth of cocaine through Ireland was another inmate then.

Like the Dunlough Bay consignment it was of high purity and destined for the UK or European market, discovered on board the 50 foot catamaran Gemeos which docked at Kinsale in September 1998.