Four members of an organised crime group have been convicted for attempting to smuggle over £100 million worth of cocaine into the UK aboard a fishing vessel off the coast of Cornwall.
The men were caught with more than a tonne of high-purity Class A drugs on board the Lily Lola fishing boat in September last year, following a major National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation.
Two of the men, Michael Kelly, 45, of Portway, Manchester, and Jake Marchant, 27, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty ahead of trial. Today, after a trial at Truro Crown Court, Jon Williams, 46, of Windmill Terrace, St Thomas, Swansea, and Patrick Godfrey, 31, of Danygraig Road, Port Tennant, Swansea, were also found guilty of drug smuggling offences.
The vessel was intercepted by Border Force cutter HMC Valiant on 13 September, which deployed a rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) to board the Lily Lola off Cornwall’s north coast.
Williams, the boat’s captain who had purchased the vessel just two months earlier for £140,000, was found at the helm with Marchant beside him. Kelly was discovered in the accommodation area, while Godfrey was asleep on deck.
The Lily Lola was escorted to Plymouth Royal Dockyard, where officers removed and tested the bales of cocaine, confirming their high purity.
NCA investigators also recovered digital evidence, including instructions and GPS coordinates received by the boat from a third party. Godfrey’s phone contained a message instructing someone to “delete everything u see and not show anybody”, and had previously searched “how long does it take a ship to leave Peru to UK.” A tracker hidden in the drugs haul was also linked to a user in South America, further indicating international involvement in the smuggling operation.
During interviews, most of the suspects remained silent, while Kelly claimed he was simply on a fishing trip. However, faced with overwhelming evidence, Kelly and Marchant admitted their roles in court on 15 October.
All four men are due to be sentenced on 8 May.
Derek Evans, NCA branch commander, said:
“The NCA and Border Force have prevented a huge haul of cocaine from hitting the streets of the UK and wider Europe, where it would have blighted countless lives and communities.
We’ve disrupted a drug supply chain and ensured organised criminals are deprived of the significant profits they would have gained had these drugs made it into the country.”
He added that the NCA continues to work tirelessly with partners at home and abroad to dismantle the international drug trade and bring those involved to justice.
Further updates will follow following sentencing in May.
