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£20m drugsrunner ran operations from Ireland

If David Huck was in a legal trade, the drugsrunner once based in
Ireland might have been lauded as one of Europe's most successful
entrepreneurs, writes John Maher, Drugs and Crime Correspondent

David Huck had been a lucky criminal. One of Europe's most successful
drugsrunners, he made his fortune in the 1980s and 1990s smuggling
drugs from North Africa into Europe and North America. For much of the
time he was based in Co Clare. Despite the intense interest in his
activities from Interpol and European police forces, he always managed
to keep one step ahead.

Even when things went wrong as with the seizure of his drugladen
yacht, the Brime, off the Kerry coast in 1993 Huck managed to slip the
net, later watching from a safe distance as accomplices were jailed.

But his luck finally ran out off the coast of Cornwall last October when
British Customs caught him aboard another yacht with £10 million
sterling worth of cannabis. Yesterday, at Exeter Crown Court, Huck and a
group of men who worked with him were sentenced for conspiring to
smuggle the cannabis into Britain. Huck's role as main organiser was
recognised when he received the longest sentence 14 years.

His conviction and imprisonment are a coup for the British authorities
and a cause for celebration among gardai who had questioned him about
the Brime in 1993, but were obliged to release him without charge.

Huck initially masterminded his illegal empire from his home in Ibiza in
Spain, where he started as a cigarette smuggler before graduating to
drugs. He arranged the purchase of cannabis in North Africa and its
transport by yacht to Britain and mainland Europe, and at least once
across the Atlantic to Canada.

After being linked to a series of intercepted smuggling operations, Huck
became a focus of attention for Interpol and European police forces, and
in 1988 he moved to the Republic, shifting part of his fortune into
Irish bank accounts and buying a home in Co Clare.

At the time, Huck regarded the Republic as a safe haven for a major
drugsmuggler. The Irish coast was relatively unguarded compared to
British and Dutch waters, and the numerous hidden inlets of the south
and west coast lent themselves to smuggling operations. Assetsseizing
legislation had not been drawn up in the Republic, so there was little
risk of losing his money to clever lawyers working for the State.

In Clare he set himself up as a businessman, a suave welldressed figure
with the sports car, yearround tan and flashes of jewellery which
betoken success. But some of his businesses were of dubious merit. One
was supposed to manufacture automatic wheelchairs, but potential
investors who gathered for a demonstration lost interest when the
prototype broke down after a few minutes. "Lack of funds cripples
wheelchair venture," a local newspaper reported.

Huck's real interest was in the cannabis run, from North Africa into
European countries. The scale of his operations is evident from the
instances in which he was caught or nearly caught. In 1993 the Brime
carried cannabis which the Garda estimated had a street value of up to
£20 million.

The Fata Morgana yacht seized by the British last year had cannabis
estimated at £10 million sterling. How many shipments got through will
never be known, but if drugrunning was legitimate Huck could certainly
have expected to be featured in business magazine lists of Europe's
richest entrepreneurs.

Until last October, when he was caught on the Fata Morgana off Cornwall,
the Brime interception off Ireland was his closest brush with the law.
Huck had bought and refurbished the ketch some years earlier, and in
1993 sent it to Morocco, where it collected a cargo of cannabis and
headed for the Kerry coast. Another yacht, travelling from Wales, was to
meet it off the coast to collect the drugs, which were to be landed in
the Republic and transported to Britain.

The crew of the Brime was unaware that the yacht had been spotted by the
French authorities and its voyage towards Ireland was being monitored.
The yacht from Wales, meanwhile, pulled into Ballinskelligs Bay in Co
Kerry for repairs, and gardai were alerted by locals suspicious about
the two men on board. The boat was boarded by gardai, who arrested the
men when they found a small quantity of drugs on board.

Before the arrests the men had apparently contacted Huck seeking his
help, and when he arrived at the yacht he too was arrested.

The gardai were suspicious that the presence of the yacht from Wales,
and Huck himself, might be connected to the impending arrival of a drugs
shipment. But they had no evidence. Like many practised criminals, Huck
talked for hours under questioning but he revealed nothing.

The gardai were obliged to release Huck from custody that weekend. He
took a flight from Dublin to London first thing on Monday morning. Later
that day the Brime crew, now close to the coast, made their first
contact with the Republic, making a call to a mobile telephone seized by
gardai during further arrests on shore. A garda took the call, pretended
to be an accomplice of Huck, and lured the Brime to its successful
interception off Loop Head by the Naval vessel LE Orla.

The four members of the Brime crew were each jailed for 10 years. In
court a garda said one of them had refused to reveal the identity of the
Brime's owner because he was afraid he would be shot. Huck had got away,
abandoning possessions in Ireland, including two houses and land in Co
Clare. Lawyers acting for him in the Republic later began selling
properties on his behalf.

Last October, Huck was in action again, sailing towards the British
coast on the yacht Fata Morgana with a cargo of cannabis from North
Africa. A tug sailed out to meet it, carrying undercover British Customs
officers masquerading as gang members. The cannabis was loaded on to the
tug, which headed for the coast where Huck's shore party was waiting.
But as the Fata Morgana was boarded and its crew arrested, the Customs
tug sank in heavy seas. The officers on the sinking vessel escaped
unharmed. Other cannabis in the possession of Customs was used to make
the delivery expected by the gang's shore party at Falmouth, Cornwall.

Earlier this year, with Huck in custody in Britain, the Criminal Assets
Bureau in Dublin moved against the remainder of his properties in
Ireland, obtaining a High Court injunction stopping him from reducing
his assets in the State below £475,000. The bureau sent Huck a tax bill,
which, with interest, is now for more than £500,000. As of yesterday he
had not paid. It is expected that the bureau will now move to seize and
sell his remaining assets in the State.