The Irish team in Rome, From left Capt Damien Kelly, Chief Petty Officers Donal O'Sullivan, Gerry Foley and Commander Brian Sweeney. Image: Niall O'Connor/The Journal. The Irish team in Rome, From left Capt Damien Kelly, Chief Petty Officers Donal O'Sullivan, Gerry Foley and Commander Brian Sweeney. Image: Niall O'Connor/The Journal.
This week The Journal travelled to Rome to meet the team and in a series of articles tell the story how a small group of Irish officers and senior enlisted naval Chief Petty Officers are helping to bring peace to the north African state. They are joined by other soldiers, aircrew and sailors on the mission from 24 other EU nations all part of the EU Naval Force mission. They have ships at sea and a number of aircraft.Sweeney, in his role, has an overview of operations and was directly involved in one of the biggest successes to date.
“The boarding of MV Victory Roro and the taking of 105 military grade vehicles, basically off to the streets of Libya has been the highlight for me personally. Sweeney revealed that the operations uses everything from social media traffic of participating smugglers and those aligned to them, cargo manifest examinations by local law enforcement agents tasked by Interpol and even satellite footage.
Intelligence work found that the Victory Roro, using a so-called flag of convenience, was registered in Equatorial Guinea and was long suspected of transferring military equipment to Benghazi in Libya. She left there on 13 July and was due to arrive on the Libyan coast on 19 July – Sweeney and the rest of the team had to act quickly.
There, in the hold of the vessel, they found the 105 vehicles – all kitted out for warfare and ready to enter the civil war in Libya.
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