Four Brits who picked up 1 tonne of cocaine in fishing boat off Cornwall 'were instructed from South America through Garmin device'

Four British men who picked up more than a tonne of cocaine on a fishing boat off the coast off Cornwall were being instructed by "drug suppliers" in South America through a Garmin device, a court heard.

Truro Crown Court today, March 3 2025, heard that 1,078kgs of high-purity cocaine had been left in the sea in 49 sacks, some containing an Apple Airtags, so their location could be monitored by GPS.

Jon Paul Williams, 46, and Patrick Godfrey, 31, were involved in collecting the huge consignment with Michael Kelly, 45, and Jake Marchant, 27, on fishing boat the Lily Lola on September 13 last year, the court heard.

All four were all charged with conspiracy to evade the prohibition on the importation of class A drugs after the vessel was intercepted by UK Border Force (UKBF) officers and the case was passed to the National Crime Agency (NCA) who already had them under surveillance.

The court heard that on September 13 UKBF vessel, HMC Valiant, was on patrol off the north coast of Cornwall and at shortly after 2pm, it deployed a RHIB to intercept the Lily Lola.

When officers boarded the Lily Lola they found a "strong smell of alcohol" and Williams, of St Thomas, Swansea, at the helm with Marchant, of no fixed address, next to him.

Kelly, of Portway, Manchester, was found in the accommodation area at the front of the boat and Godfrey, of Port Tennant, Swansea, was in a deck chair asleep.

Prosecuting Frederick Hookway said: "Upon a cursory search of the vessel, the officer’s saw five large black packages in the forward accommodation space where Mr Kelly had been found. It was suspected these were packages of drugs. All four men on board were arrested and removed to HMC Valiant.

"The officer’s made further searches of the Lily Lola and found more suspected drug packages - 16 to 18 blocks were stashed in the deck toilet; another 8 to 9 were in the right side deck hatch and two more bales were in the stern compartment.'

The Lily Lola was then taken into Plymouth Royal Dockyard and arrived on September 14.

In all, 1,078 kg blocks were on board. Sixteen were sent for forensic analysis and were confirmed as more than 80 percent purity.

At £33,000 per KG, the wholesale value was £35 million.

The NCA reported at the time of the seizure this was worth around £100 million, if sold on the streets, although this was not said to the court today.

A mobile phone that Williams had secreted down his pants was seized, but he refused to provide his pin and the NCA was unable to access it.

However, a Garmin device found on the boat was downloaded.

Mr Hookway said: "The Garmin device was downloaded and some messages were recovered. These demonstrated the boat receiving instruction from a third party. These included coordinates."

He said messages included a number of complaints from those instructing the men that they were going "too slowly".

He said: "Whoever was sending the messages was linked to those who were supplying the drugs.

"They said things like 'why have you stopped?', 'Speed up, you are going too slow' and 'you are going to be late'.

"They are going out to sea seemingly being directed by a third party who is sending these messages."

He said those monitoring the haul must have been able to monitor each and every sack, via the Airtags, because there was a later instruction that they did not have all of the 49 bags and needed to go back and get more.

He said: "Then towards the end we see an instruction to continue looking for what appears to be nineteen lost bags."

The NCA was able to access a mobile phone seized from Godfrey.

It included photographs taken on the morning of September 13 of seven of the packages containing the blocks of cocaine, including loose blocks with the label "PEZX".

There was also an image of a radar screen showing a route to a location south of the Scilly Isles, which was very similar to the route travelled by the Lily Lola.

At 9:56am on September 13 Godfrey sent a WhatsApp message which told the recipient ‘delete everything u see and not show anybody’.

He also had carried out internet searches from August 29 onwards linked to shipping, Newquay/Cornwall, and "ow long does it take a ship to leave Peru to UK".

Mr Hookway said: "Given the majority of cocaine is produced in South America, this might reveal where the boat was coming from. "That inference is strengthened by one of the Apple Airtags - the satellite tracker - from drug packages being linked to a user account in Ecuador. All of this is potentially relevant to the defendant’s knowledge of what was planned."

NCA officers, who had the four men under surveillance, had also installed a listening device and GPS tracker on their boat.

As Kelly boarded the boat at Newquay, in a conversation with Williams, he was heard to say "We’re gonna pick a f***ing big thing up".

At around 11:15am Marchant said "gonna push on big old five hundred kilos you know mate".

Using GPS data from the device, the NCA was able to plot the route undertaken, which showed the boat left Newquay during the morning on September 12 and travelled west along the north coast of Cornwall before reaching the Isle of Scilly.

It then sailed south into the middle of the channel, reaching the most southerly point at 4:45am, before sailing north, rounding Land’s End, before heading east back towards Newquay.

Williams paid £140,000 for the boat from its former owner in Ramsgate and had it transported to Swansea.

It was sailed by the men in the Celtic Sea and stopped and searched by UKBF, but nothing was found on an earlier date.

It was sailed by the men from there to Newquay on September 7, arriving the next day.

The court heard that Kelly and Marchant both pleaded guilty on 23 October 2024 to their charges.

Mr Hookway said: "You are being told about their guilty pleas because it proves there was a criminal agreement in operation to smuggle class A drugs into the UK. But, importantly, these pleas do not prove these two defendants were party to that agreement. That will be for you to decide having heard all the evidence in this case."

He said Williams and Godfrey were interviewed under caution on September 14 and both answered no comment to all questions

asked.

The trial continues.