Smugglers caught with £100m of cocaine jailed for total of 90 years

FOUR men convicted of attempting to smuggle £100 million worth of cocaine on a fishing boat off the coast of Cornwall have been sentenced to a total of 90 years in jail.

- by OLIVIER VERGNAULT

Michael Kelly, 45, from Portway, Manchester, and Jake Marchant, 27, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to importing Class A drugs during a hearing at Truro Crown Court in October.

Two other men, Jon Williams, 46, and Patrick Godfrey, 31, both of Swansea, were convicted of the charge after a trial in March.

The National Crime Agency (NCA), which investigated the case, said 1,076kg of high purity cocaine was found on the Lily Lola fishing boat on September 13 last year. The NCA said the drugs were worth £35m wholesale, but had a street value closer to £100m.

The four men had been on board a fishing boat when it was intercepted by a Border Force vessel off Newquay.

Frederick Hookway, prosecuting, said when the Lily Lola was intercepted, Williams was at the helm, with Marchant next to him, Kelly was in the accommodation area and Godfrey was asleep in a chair on the deck. Mr Hookway said there was a strong smell of alcohol but searches revealed blocks and bales of drugs stashed all over the vessel which had only been bought by Williams a few months earlier from a man in Ramsgate, Kent, for £116,000.

The court heard the Lily Lola had sailed from Newquay to south of the Isles of Scilly where the drugs were dropped off for collection at night.