UK Convicts 11 Members of Drug Gang in Bumbled Smuggling Effort
The UK’s National Crime Agency is reporting the details of a bumbled smuggling effort that nearly saw the gang lose the drugs before they could ever get them to shore. On July 22, they completed the conviction of four additional members of the gang, reporting the individuals will be sentenced in November for their bumbled smuggling efforts.
The caper began with the gang assigning three people to head out from Portsmouth into the English Channel to meet up with a containership. An accomplice from the crew of the containership was to drop the packages of cocaine overboard about 40 nautical miles south of the Needles, to the west of the Isle of Wight.
According to the NCA, the entire event was being orchestrated by another member of the gang on shore who was directing everyone over WhatsApp. It started on the night of August 17, 2024.
The problems began when the containership sailed past the three men in a rigid-hulled inflatable boat and did not drop the packages. NCA reports the leader was messaging the little boat, “Big ship has passed you, flash lights” … and then “Big ship has passed you, chase it, and flash lights.”
The containership was going to jettison about 500 kg of cocaine packed in watertight bundles. Each bundle also had a GPS tracker, which the three men in the small boat were to use as they fished the bundles out of the water. The problem was that they could not find a signal from the GPS trackers.
Eventually, David Paterson, age 49, who worked a full-time job on an oil rig in Scotland, abandoned the effort and, along with his two accomplices, took the boat back to shore. He came back empty-handed and reportedly gave up, but was convicted for his role in the plot. One of the others got off at trial, and the NCA declined to reveal the details of the third man.
The following day, however, they finally found the signal from the GPS trackers. The gang reportedly scrambled and found three more people to take the boat back out to sea, and this time they found the bundles and brought them ashore. However, their plot had been found out, and when they landed with 16 bundles of cocaine in West Sussex, law enforcement was waiting for them. The report said the cocaine was valued at £40 million.
Law enforcement continued their investigation and reported they were able to capture the mastermind and others from the drug gang. The leader, Daniel Jamieson, age 41, masqueraded as a legitimate businessman and, using a false name, bought a maritime business so he could get hold of an RHIB to recover the drugs.
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Others convicted included Sam Brown, age 33, who worked as a recruiter to find the people. Another individual, Harry Kennedy, who lived on the same street in Liverpool, was recruited on August 18 to help move the cocaine to shore when the GPS devices began working.
Law enforcement called the bust “a serious loss for the crime group.” They highlighted the bust as the latest in their efforts to disrupt trafficking routes.
