Two Scots appear in court in connection with £26m cocaine seizure in Ireland

Mark Doherty, of Glasgow, and Ben Sandford, of Moray, faced the charges at Bandon District Court in Ireland.

Two Scots appear in Irish court in connection with £26m cocaine seizure in Ireland — Cocaine seizure: The men faced the charges at Bandon District Court on Thursday. © Google Maps 2025

4th Jul 2025

Posted in

Crime

Two Scottish men have appeared in an Irish court in connection with a £26m cocaine seizure off the coast of Ireland.

Mark Doherty, 40, of Glasgow, and Ben Sandford, 40, of Moray, faced the charges at Bandon District Court, County Cork, along with two other suspects on Thursday.

They appeared alongside Levent Gulay, 31, of Bavaria, Germany, and Christopher Hibbit, 44, from Cornwall in England.

The men were arrested on Tuesday, July 1, after Gardai from the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau stopped a van in the Courtmacsherry area of Cork, and 440kg of suspected cocaine, with a street value in excess of €31m, was recovered.

Two of the men were arrested by the armed Maritime Interdiction Team, on a rigid inflatable boat (RIB) that had departed Broadstrand, Countmacherry.

The boat was intercepted by two Naval Services RIBs dispatched from Irish naval ship L.E William Butler Years, supported by a Maritime patrol aircraft from the Irish Air Corps, off the coast of Waterford.

Doherty, from Pollok, and Sandford, from Keith, both faced two charges regarding possession of cocaine and possession of cocaine for sale or supply.

The four defendants were remanded in custody, and will appear at Macroom District Court on July 9.