Man jailed for helping Brazilian cartel smuggle cocaine worth €21.6m to Limerick

David Raleigh

A man who assisted a Brazilian drug cartel in smuggling a massive shipment of cocaine into Ireland has been jailed for 10 years.

Nikola Penchev (34), of Veliki, Preslav, Bulgaria, pleaded guilty at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court to possessing cocaine worth over €21.6 million, for sale or supply, at Foynes Port, Co Limerick, on December 19th, 2023.

Penchev, a maritime engineer, was arrested after Revenue officials and gardaí, acting on a tip off that the drugs were onboard the MV Verila, searched the vessel and found the cocaine haul tied together in several bales attached to a transmitter.

The ship initially set sail from Hamilton in Canada to Santos in Brazil, before reverting to Hamilton and eventually onto Foynes in Co Limerick.

Penchev, who joined the ship on its second voyage out of Hamilton, had initially been unaware it was carrying cocaine.

While on route to Foynes Port, Penchev was recruited by another of the ship’s crew, his friend and fellow Bulgarian national, Kamen Petkov (37), to help him dump the cocaine in parcels at Glin, a few kilometres out from Foynes.

Detective Garda Adrian Cahill gave evidence in court that unidentified parties used small boats to ferry the cocaine bales to Petkov at Santos Port while the rest of the ship’s crew were asleep.

Petkov, who was previously jailed for 10 years after he also pleaded guilty to having the cocaine haul for sale or supply, was responsible for loading the drugs on board, tying the drug parcels together with life jackets and attaching a transmitter. He kept in regular contact with the cartel via a satellite phone and a navigation app “OsmAnd”.

Petkov and Penchev ended up not dumping the drugs overboard at Glin as nobody appeared to be there to collect the packages when the ship arrived at the drop-off point.

Gardaí said Petkov told them that he was to be paid €150,000 for helping the gang, but they he ended up not receiving any payment.

Penchev told gardaí Petkov told him he would pay him €10,000 for helping him, but he too did not receive any of the money.

Prosecuting barrister Lily Buckley BL said Petkov told Penchev that if they lost the drugs, their lives would be under threat from “dangerous people”.

Penchev, who is married with two children, told gardaí he only helped Petkov because he was “afraid” of what the consequences would be for him and his family had he not helped.

During the sailing, Penchev and Petkov took photos of the drug bales and sent the mobile phone snaps to the gang to prove the drugs were still onboard the ship.

Penchev’s barrister told the court that he was not the instigator, that he was remorseful and that he was a good, loving father and husband.

Judge Daly said: “Cocaine is a very serious and highly addictive drug, and the accused allowed himself to become involved in the international carrying of a serious amount of drugs.”

The judge said he was satisfied that a headline prison sentence of 13 years was “appropriate... this being a high-level commercial drug dealing operation”.

Judge Daly said Penchev’s early guilty plea and his cooperation with the Garda investigation allowed it “to proceed with greater speed and efficiency”.

However, the judge said that because Penchev involved himself in “trafficking such a large volume of drugs half way around the world, the principle of deterrents generally, prevents me considering sentencing below the presumptive minimum in the case, and so I reduce the sentence to one of ten years”.

The sentence was backdated to December 24th, 2023, when Penchev first entered into custody following his arrest.

The court heard the Garda investigation into the cocaine seizure remains “ongoing”.