Eleven guilty in £40m cocaine smuggling plot

Eleven people have been convicted over a plot to smuggle £40m cocaine into the UK - which was dropped into the sea from a passing ship.

David Paterson, 49, sailed out from Haslar Marina, Portsmouth, into international waters off the Isle of Wight on 17 August 2024 to collect the 500kg consignment. He failed but Adil Nolan succeeded after setting out from Eastbourne Harbour the next day.

Three men out of the 11 plotters were found guilty of conspiring to smuggle cocaine at a trial at Portsmouth Crown Court, while one woman was found guilty of assisting an organised crime group. Seven others previously admitted their roles, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

They will be sentenced in November.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said the drugs were dropped into the water about 40 nautical miles south of the Needles, to the west of the Isle of Wight, by an accomplice crew on a container ship.

The cocaine was in waterproof bundles, each fitted with a tracker.

The NCA said Paterson had planned to fish the Class A drugs out of the water and return to shore in a rigid-hulled inflatable boat so they could be sold to other crime groups across the country.

But the container ship sailed past him as he took directions from Lewis Watts, an accomplice who was ashore, and the trackers failed and did not send a signal, leaving them empty-handed.

The boat had been acquired by Daniel Jamieson, 41, who previously masqueraded as a legitimate businessman with a false name to buy a maritime business to get hold of it.

The following morning, the trackers came back online and the organised crime group "scrambled a new crew" to locate the drugs, the NCA said.

Nolan used the inflatable boat and recovered 16 bales of cocaine with a purity of about 85%.

He sailed to Medmerry Beach near Selsey, in West Sussex, but law enforcement officers were waiting.

Jules Harriman, NCA senior investigating officer, described it as a "large seizure" of cocaine and a "serious loss for the crime group".

"Their profits can no longer be ploughed back into further offending and we've prevented these toxic drugs from reaching UK streets where they poison people's lives," she said.

The operation also involved Merseyside Police, West Mercia Police, Hampshire Police and Sussex Police.

Found guilty of conspiracy to smuggle cocaine following a trial were Daniel Jamieson, of Heath Road, Ramsden Heath, Essex; Lewis Watts, of Toronto Road, Tilbury, Essex; and David Paterson, of Viking Way, Peterhead, near Aberdeen.

Previously admitting the same charge were Sam Brown, 33, and Harry Kennedy, 38, of Wykeham Street, Kirkdale, Liverpool; and Adil Nolan, of Maureen Walk, Fazakerley, Liverpool.

Pleading guilty to assisting an organised crime group were Roy Harmer, 46, of Chine Road, Bournemouth; Neil Pinchbeck, 43, of Pearce Road, Poole; Thomas Stewart, 40, of Carpenter Close, Peterborough; and Ricky Platt, 49, of Westby Road, Boscombe, Dorset.

Charlotte Blenman, 34, of Shelley Road East, Boscombe, Bournemouth, was cleared of conspiracy to smuggle cocaine but found guilty of assisting an organised crime group.