Massive Cork drug bust to be made into a movie

It was one of the biggest drug seizures ever in Europe and now that massive cocaine haul discovered off the Cork coast is to be made into a movie.

Back in 2007, €440m of cocaine was intercepted in the process of being transferred from one vessel to another off Mizen Head in west Cork. Three men were arrested and all three were given 10 years in prison in 2009.

Now the story of how the drug shipment was tracked, seized and prosecuted is to be brought to the big screen by Cork-born film-maker Colin Carroll. Carroll has spent four years working on the script and the film, with the working title, Fastnet Rock, will cost €5m to make according to the film-maker.

Carroll is set to meet the Irish Film Board about funding soon, and he is plotting a trip to Hollywood to drum up interest but the movie will have some dramatic difference to real life. Quick warning, major spoiler alerts here so stop reading if you fancy seeing this film.

According to quotes published on thecorknews.ie, Carroll says of the plot: "The movie will be based on the drugs bust in Dunlough Bay and filmed there, but there will be some significant differences. Firstly, it will be set in 2012, and briefly the synopsis is that a drug shipment, the result of a collaboration between the IRA and Colombians, goes awry with bales of cocaine washing up off the west Cork coast.

"But in the screenplay, I focus on the fall-out if only half the cocaine was recovered and if, just before capture, the drug-runners hid a further 1.5 tonnes of cocaine at the bottom of the sea. Using this hook allows realistic characters to be catapulted into these extraordinary circumstances."

"However, during the subsequent prosecution, the drug-running prisoners are sprung from the courthouse, putting the justice system on trial. But the prisoners are not freed, rather kidnapped by the Mafia, who are interested in the GPS coordinates of a further cache of cocaine hidden at the bottom of the sea." Sounds good eh?

If Carroll’s name rings a bell he is the man who has competed for Ireland in all sorts of obscure sports, such as sumo wrestling and elephant polo. He even had a TV show about it called 'Colin and Graham's Excellent Adventures'.

If anyone can pull this madness off then it is Carroll. We won't be buying our cinema tickets just yet but we will keep an eye on this just in case he manages it.