British Police have seized two tonnes of cocaine off the coast of Cornwall in what is being described as the biggest drug seizure in years, destined for the European market.
Agents from the National Crime Agency raided a vessel, the SY Marcia, at Newlyn Harbor after identifying it out at sea and using Border Force ships to intercept it.
Maarten Peter Pieterse, 59, and Emile Adriaan Jeroen Schoemaker, 44, both from the Netherlands, were arrested on board. This seizure will be a major hit to the international criminal networks involved.
This is a major seizure, one of the largest detections of cocaine ever made in the UK and a testament to the multi-agency approach we take to secure the UK’s border and territorial waters.
The pair of Dutch hard drugs smugglers have been charged with being ‘concerned in the carrying or concealing of controlled drug of Class A, namely cocaine, on the SY Marcia knowing or having reasonable grounds to suspect that the drug was intended to be imported.
While the end destination is unclear at this stage, I’ve no doubt that this was destined for the European market. At least a proportion of this cocaine would have ended up here in the UK, sold by drugs gangs who are also involved in intimidation, exploitation and violence.
Schoemaker denied the charges at Bristol Magistrates Court on Saturday morning, while Pieterse did not enter a plea. They have been remanded in custody and will reappear in court on August 20, 2018.
LAD Bible / ABC Flash Point Drugs News 2018.
Missed chance to cash in?
Easy does it, except for when thing go wrong?
Now the Coast Guard will sell it to its own networks?
Money has no color?