LONDON: Britain’s biggest ever drugs bust has now seen more than three tons of cocaine worth in excess of £500million seized by the Royal Navy after a raid on a ship in the North Sea.
The Tanzanian registered tug boat MV Hamal, manned by a Turkish gang, was intercepted by the Navy and Border Force officials about 100 miles east of the Aberdeenshire coast last week.
Nine Turkish nationals have since been remanded in custody in connection with alleged drug trafficking offences.
Originally the National Crime Agency (NCA) said that two tonnes had been found, but after further investigation another tonne was uncovered.
If cut and sold in the UK, it would have had a likely potential street value of more than £500 million, depending on purity.
Experts believe it was sourced in South America and loaded onto the boat in the Canary Islands.
The high-purity drugs bust is more than three times more valuable than Britain’s previous biggest haul. Cocaine worth £150million was discovered onboard a yacht off the south-west coast of Ireland in September 2014. It was headed to north Wales.
John McGowan, senior investigating officer for the NCA, said: ‘The search of this vessel has been lengthy and painstaking, undertaken by hugely skilled specialists working in difficult conditions.
‘The result is this massive discovery – believed to be the biggest single class A drug seizure on record in the UK, and likely to be worth several hundred million pounds.’
The operation was prompted by the NCA, acting on a tip-off from French customs, and having been escorted back to Aberdeen harbour a full search of the vessel was carried out.
The crew were then detained for questioning by investigators from the NCA’s Border Policing Command.
Mustafa Ceviz, 54, Ibrahim Dag,47, Mumin Sahin, 45, Mahammet Seckin, 26, Umit Colakel, 38, Kayacan Dalgakiran, 63, Emin Ozmen, 50, all from Istanbul, appeared in private at Aberdeen Sheriff Court on Monday.
Abdulkadir Cirik, 31, from Mersin, and Mustafa Guven, 47, from Yozgat, also appeared from custody at the petition hearing.
They all faced the same charge of possession of a controlled drug under the Criminal Justice (International Co-operation) Act 1990.
The act allows the United Kingdom to join with other countries in implementing the Vienna Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances
The men made no plea and no declaration and were remanded in custody.
They are expected to appear in court again next week.
French customs said in a statement it tipped off British authorities ‘to board a tug 60 miles east of Scotland carrying a very large quantity of cocaine, more than two tonnes’.
A large amount of the UK’s cocaine supply comes from Colombia or the border areas of neighbouring Venezuela and Ecuador.
Britain is one of Europe’s largest and most profitable markets for the drug, with an estimated 25 to 30 tons of cocaine smuggled into the UK each year.
