Fisherman 'so stupid he makes Mr Blobby look like James Bond' convicted of captaining boat that picked up £100m of cocaine in the sea

A fisherman "so stupid he makes Mr Blobby look like James Bond" has been convicted of captaining a boat that picked up £100 million of cocaine dropped in the sea by a South American drugs cartel.

Jon Williams' (top right) defence branded him as so "thick" they compared him to Forest Gump during a trial at Truro Crown Court which concluded today.

But, the jury was unconvinced by his claim he only sailed the fishing boat to collect more than a tonne of the class A drugs off the coast of Cornwall after receiving threats from drug smugglers that his daughter would be burnt and petrol would be poured into the home of his mother.

Williams, 46, of Windmill Terrace, St Thomas, Swansea, was today convicted alongside Patrick Godfrey, 31, of Danygraig Road, Port Tennant, Swansea, who put up no defence.

The two other crew members Michael Kelly, 45, and Jake Marchant, 27, pleaded guilty before trial.

The four were found with 1,076kgs of the Class A drug on board their boat, the Lily Lola, in September last year.

Shortly after 2pm on 13 September, the Border Force cutter HMC Valiant was on patrol off the north coast of Cornwall and deployed a RHIB (rigid hulled inflatable boat) to intercept the Lily Lola.

Williams, the captain, had bought the boat for around £140,000 two months earlier, and was at the helm.

Marchant, of no fixed abode, was next to him. Kelly, of Portway, Manchester, was in the accommodation area and Godfrey was asleep in a deck chair.

The Lily Lola was taken into Plymouth Royal Dockyard and the seized substances, which were divided into bales, removed and tested showing them to be high purity cocaine.

The drugs on board were valued at £35million wholesale and £100 million if sold on the streets.

A device that had been on board the Lily Lola was downloaded and some messages were recovered.

These demonstrated the boat was receiving instructions and co-ordinates from a third party via a Garmin device.

Some of the bags of cocaine also contained Apple Airtags, linked to an online account in Ecuador, so the cartel could track the delivery and guide the boats towards it.

Godfrey’s phone seized by the NCA showed he sent a message to someone saying ‘delete everything u see and not show anybody’. His phone also made the internet search "how long does it take a ship to leave Peru to UK".

Williams, Godfrey and Marchant made no comment in interview and Kelly claimed he was on a fishing trip.

But faced with the evidence against them, Kelly and Marchant pleaded guilty at Truro Crown Court on 15 October.

Williams and Godfrey went on trial, with Godfrey offering no evidence to convince the jury of his "innocence."

However, David Leathly, representing Williams, went at lengths to convince jurors that his client was of such low IQ he could not possibly have entered into the conspiracy by choice and without being threatened and branded him as "aka Forest Gump"

Williams said he left school early with no qualifications and was bullied for being stupid.

He got into the fishing and cockling industries but could not read or write and used an electronic device to read paperwork to him.

Williams said after his father died a few years ago he turned from alcohol to cocaine and developed

a 3.5 to 4grammes a day habit.

By 2024 he owed £30,000 to local drug dealers.

Williams said that the dealers came up with a scheme whereby they bought the Lily Lola and he would use it for legitimate fishing until he had repaid the debt.

But, the scheme didn't pay its way and they later told him to pick up the huge haul on the boat to clear his debt in one go.

Williams did not want to take part, he told the court, but was warned his daughter and mother would be burnt with petrol, he said.

Prosecuting, Frederick Hookway, said the story was made up and Williams had been involved from at least when the boat was purchased in his name and transported to Wales.

He said that he had said nothing to law enforcement officers about being put under duress once the boat was intercepted and made no comment in interview and refused to hand over the pin for his phone.

Mr Leathly said the threats were entirely credible and pointed to films including The French Connection, starring the late Gene Hackman, and documentaries about South American cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar to highlight the levels of violence involved in the trade.

He said: "Pablo Escobar is real and the French Connection is real, but the prosecution expects you to think it is laughable that he could have been put under duress.

"His possession of the boat does not add up, a lot of it doesn't add up, but for someone so stupid as Jon Williams it does.

"Can you wholeheartedly disbelieve him? What you see with him is what you get, he is not capable of contrivance.

"Because he has said everything he needed to say to convict him and gave all the wrong answers to my learned friend, not because my learned friend is so clever he finally wheedled it out of him, but because Jon Paul Williams makes Mr Blobby look like James Bond because he is that stupid."

The jury reached unanimous verdicts that both men were guilty.

His Honour Judge James Adkin said the amount of cocaine involved could have had dealers across the country "going for weeks."

He added: "The jury has convicted you on what I see as pretty overwhelming evidence against you and you should both expect long custodial sentences."

The four men will return to the court on 8 May to be sentenced.

NCA branch commander Derek Evans 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.

"The NCA is working around the clock with partners here and overseas to erode the criminal networks benefiting from the destructive drugs trade."