Irish Cops Find $650M Of Cocaine On Yacht

Police say that armed officers from Ireland's navy and police have seized an Irish-record haul of cocaine on a yacht and arrested three men.

Police say more than 1.5 tons of cocaine being smuggled from the Caribbean was found Thursday aboard the yacht about 150 miles off the southwest Cork coast. Two of the men arrested come from Britain, and one from Dublin.

Ireland's national police force estimates the street value of the seized cocaine at $650 million. That would break the previous $560 million record set last year when a similar smuggling operation off the Cork coast was detected - after the gang's ship capsized in a storm, dumping bales of cocaine into the sea.

The Belfast Telegraph reported that officials had the 60-foot yacht, called Dances With Waves, under surveillance since it left its port of departure in the Caribbean. The exact location of the boat's departure was not released.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officials have cited Ireland's southern coast, dubbed the "Irish Box," as a particularly difficult to patrol entry point for drug smugglers into the lucrative Irish market.

A July 2007 article in The Guardian newspaper - after the previous record-setting cocaine haul - quoted the DEA as saying the coastline was "nearly impossible to patrol" due to the unpredictable and often treacherous weather and the irregular coast.

Irish Defense Minister Willie O'Dea told Britain's ITV News on Friday: "With these little inlets and the length of the Irish coastline, it was very attractive to bring drugs in... It's less attractive now.

"I think it will be a salutary lesson to people who think they can easily get drugs in here and there's absolutely no risk whatsoever, as was the case for too long."