A former drug squad officer who masterminded a bid to smuggle £235 million worth of cocaine from the Caribbean aboard a 35ft catamaran to Ireland is facing a lengthy jail term.
Michael Daly, 49, teamed up with  Perry Wharrie,50, a convicted police killer, to arrange  shipment in 2007 of 1.5 tonnes of the drug aboard the Lucky Day a  £100,000 catamaran which they bought for the purpose.
Sat-phone calls from Colombia to the yacht were eaves-dropped by Customs men who tracked the yacht on its 27-day passage from Barbados to the Irish coastline off Cork.
When the gang tried transhipping the drug ashore in RIBs one of the inflatables capsized throwing 62 bales of cocaine into the sea.
Daly, a former Scotland yard drug squad officer, and Wharrie struggled ashore where they were arrested by Irish police.
Daly who is serving eight years for another smuggling operation is awaiting sentence after admitting his role in the plot.
Wharrie, who served 17 years for the murder of a policeman in 1988 was  jailed last year. Four other men have also been convicted or have admitted their guilt.