A British drug dealer who used a luxury yacht to smuggle 160 million pounds of cocaine into the UK has been jailed for 18 years.
Andrew Cole, 33, of Norton Road, Stockton-on-Tees, was aboard the luxury yacht Kahu when he stopped off the coast of Plymouth.
Last September, Border Force and National Crime Agency (NCA) agents intercepted the yacht and discovered the massive two-tonne cocaine transport from South America.
Cole admitted to smuggling Class A drugs, which were between 60% and 80% purity, in January this year.
It was the link between an international organized crime syndicate and a UK group, and its function was to ensure the safe reception, passage and transfer of cocaine to the yacht crew.
On August 28, 2021, Cole sent a message: “The account has been completed. 2000 bits,” which meant that 2,000 pounds of cocaine had been delivered to the Kahu.
Five other men, the captain and four crew members, were acquitted by a jury.
Image: The Jamaican-flagged Kahu yacht Cole was on when he was intercepted
How text messages exposed the smuggling plot
In the months leading up to the Jamaican-flagged Kahu, Cole had been involved in planning the smuggling operation and traveled to Costa Rica and Panama in May 2021.
In early July he flew from Panama to Miami and the next day flew to Barbados, where the Kahu arrived on July 29 from Florida.
During the trip across the Atlantic, Cole used a Samsung phone to contact others involved, and ended up providing investigators with an ordinary comment on the smuggling operation.
Phone messages show that the Kahu had to meet with another ship coming from Suriname to South America and take possession of the drug.
When Cole and the crew noticed that a Border Force ship was following them, a text message was sent saying, “We’re embarking.”
The unread response read, “Throw away the satellite phones you use. Throw away all the phones. You’ve copied, throw away all the phones.”
Image: Cocaine was worth £ 160 million
Gavin Heckles, NCA’s chief operating officer, said: communities in the UK, where it would have fed more crime.
“We thank colleagues from the Border Force and the Australian Federal Police who were key in the confiscation of these drugs and the imprisonment of Andrew Cole.”
The yacht was sold at auction earlier this month for £ 473,500.