{"id":293129,"date":"2026-01-20T01:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T01:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/293129\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T01:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T01:15:08","slug":"former-british-soldier-played-logistical-role-in-smuggling-e42m-worth-of-cocaine-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/293129\/","title":{"rendered":"Former British soldier played \u2018logistical role\u2019 in smuggling \u20ac42m worth of cocaine \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former British soldier<\/a> played a \u201clogistical\u201d role in a large-scale cocaine smuggling operation into Ireland but was not among the \u201ctop\u201d figures directing the criminal enterprise, the Special Criminal Court<\/a> has heard.<\/p>\n

Gary Monks was part of a \u201cstructured and organised\u201d cell under the control of others that conspired to import cocaine with an estimated value of up to \u20ac42 million.<\/p>\n

The court heard on Monday that Monks (41) has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) stemming from his military service and subsequent work in conflict zones, including Iraq and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

Monks was also \u201chaunted\u201d after witnessing a car bomb in which a number of local people died and some of his colleagues were injured, the court was told.<\/p>\n

Monks is one of seven men who have pleaded guilty to conspiring with others to import controlled drugs between December 18th, 2024, and January 15th, 2025, within and outside the State.<\/p>\n

Three of the men were Filipino nationals who were crew members aboard a ship transporting the drugs from the Amazon region. The vessel docked off the coast of Co Clare.<\/p>\n

The remaining four men, including Monks, were based in Britain or Northern Ireland and formed part of a \u201clanding cell\u201d tasked with collecting the drugs using an inflatable boat and transporting them to a location in Co Kerry.<\/p>\n

The seven men are Monks (41), of Amulree Place, Glasgow, Scotland; Miljan Koprivica (46), of Bollin Drive, Manchester; Conor Costello (31), of Earhart Park, Madamsbank Road, Derry; Ryan Watson (32), of Mailerbeg Gardens, Modiesburn, Glasgow; and three Filipino men: Hanz Pangahin (36), Christopher Ampo (44) and Feljon Lao (29). <\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed told a previous sentencing hearing that the seven defendants operated as \u201cstructured and organised cells\u201d under the overarching control of people on the ground.<\/p>\n

A detective inspector today agreed with Monk\u2019s defence senior counsel Shane Costelloe that his client was part of the \u201clanding crew\u201d and his function was to be on the semi-inflatable rigid inflatable boat (RIB) to go out and bring the drugs in.<\/p>\n

Mr Costelloe put it to the detective inspector that while he was not suggesting that Monks was \u201can ingenue\u201d or an \u201cinnocent abroad\u201d he was not someone who was \u201cat the upper echelons of the organisation\u201d.<\/p>\n

The detective said there was a hierarchy involved, and Monks had \u201ca logistical importance but as regards the overall management, he certainly wouldn\u2019t be at the top\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Costelloe said his client joined the British Army at a young age, served with distinction, and was honourably discharged in 2011.<\/p>\n

Monks later worked in private security roles.<\/p>\n

He said that when Monks went back to his home country of Scotland, and \u201cwhile in the throws of PTSD\u201d following the car bomb incident, he started abusing drugs for the first time. Monks was also drinking to excess, counsel said, and was \u201cslowly descending into out-of-control behaviour\u201d. He lost his job and could not get alternative employment.<\/p>\n

Monks was offered a large amount of money and took the opportunity to commit a crime in the hope he would make that \u201ceasy money, as he saw it\u201d, counsel said.<\/p>\n

There was a \u201cmarked distinction\u201d between Monks and those who have come before the courts with a lengthy history of prior offending, Mr Costelloe said, noting his client has convictions dating back to his return to Scotland but nothing as serious as those for which he is before the Special Criminal Court.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis history of offending occurs when he came back from Iraq and Afghanistan,\u201d said counsel.<\/p>\n

Mr Costelloe said Monks is managing his psychiatric illness and is finding medication very helpful.<\/p>\n

Ms Justice Karen O\u2019Connor adjourned the matter to Monday, March 23rd. She remanded all of the defendants in custody to that date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former British soldier played a \u201clogistical\u201d role in a large-scale cocaine smuggling operation into Ireland but was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,6441,7486,13,14,6,957,11,12,15,16,5,954,55624,7,8,393,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-293129","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-british-army","11":"tag-clare","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-kerry","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-northern-ireland","22":"tag-special-criminal-court","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories","25":"tag-united-kingdom","26":"tag-world","27":"tag-world-news","28":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115924783777691074","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}