Two Scottish cocaine smugglers have been jailed for 16 years each after national crime agency officers intercepted their fishing vessel carrying nearly half a tonne of cocaine.
Alan Colquhoun, 49, from Alloa, and William Donohoe, 38, from Airdrie, were part of a five-man gang arrested on June 8 this year as they moved 425kg of cocaine worth £34m into Eastbourne Marina in England. The drugs were being hauled off the New Horizon fishing vessel.
Investigation and Arrests
The group had been under surveillance by National Crime Agency (NCA) officers for months. Colquhoun and Donohoe, described as the group's leaders, were in line for an £80,000 payout if they successfully retrieved the drugs from the English Channel.
The Class A drugs had been wrapped in waterproof bags, fitted with a GPS tracker, and dropped overboard from another vessel for the crew to collect. The gang planned to bring the drugs ashore and move them on to other crime groups across the country.
Sentences Handed Down
On Friday at Hove Crown Court, Colquhoun and Donohoe were sentenced to 16 years each, reduced from 24 years for their early guilty pleas. The other three men were also sentenced: Ian Smith, 50, of East Sussex, received 12 years reduced from 18; Jacob Cronin, 32, also of East Sussex, received six years and eight months reduced from 10; and Daniel Ruffell, of Berkshire, received eight years reduced from 12.
Carl Barrass, NCA Senior Investigating Officer, said: "Colquhoun and Donohoe acted for a crime group with international reach and were crucial logistics men moving very large amounts of Class A drugs into the UK."
"The NCA investigation has not only taken out these five men who are now toxic to fellow criminals, but has removed nearly half a tonne of cocaine whose profits are lost to the OCG," he added.
Roles in the Conspiracy
The pair led the group by directing the other men and liaising with the crime group that had trafficked the drugs from abroad. They conducted reconnaissance along the south coast and plotted where to bring the drugs ashore. They hired a van in Scotland, claiming it would be used to move pub stock, before driving south to transport the cocaine.
Smith, the New Horizon skipper and fisherman, was recruited to sail out and find the illegal haul. He was joined on the boat by Cronin and Ruffell, while Donohoe stayed on land and was arrested at a petrol station. Ruffell, who hid in a cupboard when NCA armed officers stormed the boat, acted as lookout and owed the OCG a significant debt. Cronin, a fisherman by trade, helped prepare the vessel before it set sail.
Shilpa Chauhan, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "This was a highly sophisticated conspiracy to smuggle millions of pounds worth of class A drugs into the UK."
"Importations on this scale cause immense harm to our communities, feeding addiction and funding further organised crime. The sentences handed down reflect the serious roles each of these defendants played, from those who organised and directed the conspiracy, to those who carried out its logistics on the ground," she added.
