Drug smugglers jailed over £90m cocaine haul

A gang of drug smugglers were jailed today for sailing a record £90 million cocaine consignment into Britain.

The massive operation was masterminded by Michael Tyrrell, 55, and featured the smugglers' headquarters, an ocean-going yacht and months of planning.

The father of three, who called himself the "first white Rastafarian of Antigua" after the island where he grew up, was so "arrogant" he never imagined being caught.

He was also convinced the drugs run would spell the end of his money worries but the 26-year sentence he got was not quite the solution he had banked on.

London's Snaresbrook Crown Court heard Customs and Excise and police secretly watched every move he made between July and October 2000.

And just when he thought success was assured, stormy weather and mechanical failure forced "drugs overlord" Tyrrell and his accomplices to spend hours staggering along a treacherous cliff-top path at night with armfuls of their precious cargo.

It left them wet, cold, miserable and utterly exhausted. They were just beginning to think things could not get worse when they were arrested.

Twenty large bales of the highly addictive drug - bound for towns and cities across Britain - were seized.

After the 396 kilos haul had been weighed, officers realised they had seized the largest single British cocaine consignment to date.

Only one of those detained admitted the single smuggling charge they all faced. The others were found guilty after a six-month trial.

Judge Timothy King told the five smugglers: "Those who involve themselves in the trafficking of hard and addictive drugs such as cocaine are nothing less than the purveyors of misery, degradation and death.

"I and my colleagues in the criminal courts deal on a daily basis with lives which have been blighted, decimated and in too many cases ruined beyond repair by drug addiction.

"These are for the most part ordinary people who have been driven to commit crimes such as shoplifting, street muggings and burglary in order to feed their cravings.

"Then there are the lives of their many victims, damaged, hurt and all too frequently traumatised by the violence committed against them."

The judge said that he and dicial colleagues had frequently been painted in the media as "out of touch with the real world" and "living in ivory towers".

That was completely untrue. "They, like me, have to deal on a daily basis with the affects of lives broken by drug That I might tell you from a judge's perspective is the real world."

He went on: "You and others like you have much to answer for. Drug abuse is the scourge in decent civilised societies and one which, on a global scale, costs those societies many billions of pounds.

"The likes of you are a blight, a cancer within such societies, and in this instance our society in the United Kingdom."

The judge said a "clear and unequivocal" message had to be sent out that such activities would be treated with "zero tolerance".

It was meant particularly for others who might be tempted to grab a share of the huge profits from this "pernicious" trade.

"Let it be clearly understood that however great the risk and however great the profits the penalties meted out by these courts will be even higher."

Dealing first with Tyrrell - who claimed he became involved because a Colombian drugs baron threatened to murder his mother if he did not obey orders - the judge told him it was obvious he was the operation's "overlord".

"You were the boss, the governor, the man at the very top of this organisation, the man to whom others looked for orders and instruction. This was your brainchild, your scheme."

He had spent months planning it and large sums in financing it.

The three weeks Tyrrell spent in the witness box had portrayed a "highly manipulative man, utterly devoid of scruples and prepared to go any lengths to achieve your ambitions.

"You were even vain enough to manipulate the very course of the trial itself ... You used the witness box as a platform to assert your warped ideologies and perversions of the truth. That is the measure of you, Michael Tyrrell - a vain, self-interested, arrogant, greedy, manipulative and ruthless man."

It was unfortunate he was a British citizen and could not be deported. "I can think a few whose presence on these shores are less conducive to the well-being of its people."

Tyrrell's right-hand man, Robert Kavanagh, the owner of a palatial two million dollar hideaway on the Caribbean island of St Barts, was jailed for 24 years.

The judge said it was clear he had been "deeply involved" in what went on.

He had used his contacts with the drug cartels of Venezuela and Colombia to arrange the supply of cocaine.

"In short, your role was pivotal. You knew Tyrrell could feel confident that you would deliver and deliver you most certainly did."

The next to be jailed was Colombian boat builder and sailor German Henao, 48, the only one to admit the smuggling charge. He got 13 years.

As part of the three-man crew on board the Blue Hen, the yacht used to smuggle the drugs across the Atlantic, he was a "trusted hand responsible for its safe passage and delivery".

The last two to be dealt with were Didier Le Brun, 49, from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who skippered the vessel, and his other crew member Laurent Penchef, 32, a dual American-French citizen, of no fixed address.

They were each sentenced to 18 years.

They, too, were critical to the operation's success with Le Brun overseeing the £35,000 purchase of the battered 37ft single-masted vessel he was told he could keep along with a £140,000 payoff after he had sailed the cocaine to Britain.

Penchef, said the judge, was the "watch keeper and helmsman" during the transatlantic crossing and responsible for safely transferring the drug ashore once the vessel had reached the Isle of Wight.

Kavanagh and Henao were recommended for deportation.

During the trial, the jury heard that Tyrrell, who settled in Antigua with his parents as a child, was divorced, had a common-law wife, four houses on a hill and a brace of upmarket cars.

In 1996 he brought his family to Britain and bought a £900,000 house in Brook, Hampshire.

Three years later he purchased Orchard Bay House, near Ventnor, on the Isle of Wight for £657,000.

It had its own beach, was built 150 years earlier as a base in the battle against smugglers, and seemed like a drug runner's dream headquarters.

Unfortunately for him, Customs men learnt something was afoot in July 2000, and a joint investigation - Operation Eyefull - swung into action with Britain's National Crime Squad.

Tyrrell, who frequently visited Antigua, was tracked whenever he was in Britain.

In September 2000, Blue Hen cast off, first collecting the drugs from Bequia, an island near St Vincent, before heading to the Isle of Wight. She arrived on October 22.

With the weather worsening, the 20 large cocaine bales were loaded into the yacht's 12ft inflatable. Le Brun then remained aboard while Penchef and Henao headed for Orchard Bay.

Halfway there the outboard died, forcing them to land at Woody Bay, half-a-mile off course. There they abandoned the massive cocaine consignment on the beach and began a treacherous night-time, cliff-top slog to base, where the rest of the gang awaited.

Meanwhile, Le Brun, worried by the lack of news, ignored orders and sailed towards the house, only for a furious Tyrrell to tell him to turn around and head for the horizon.

Penchef and Henao then arrived and angered him with a description of the drugs left alone somewhere along the coast.

The once sophisticated operation, by now badly fraying at the edges, began to resemble a Ealing comedy script as they then set off in a rowing boat.

After finding the haul, they spent hours carrying the drugs to the house along a narrow, windswept, rain-lashed cliff path, regarded as dangerous even in daylight.

It took what was left of the night to stumble back with just six bales of cocaine. Penchef then got the outboard working and the next six went by inflatable.

Tyrrell finally decided to throw caution to the wind and try to collect the final eight by van.

He had barely started the engine when Customs men pounced. Tyrrell, who has a number of previous convictions for cannabis smuggling, struggled with his captors, later explaining: "You have got to have a go, haven't you?"

Customs minister Paul Boateng said: "This is an excellent result for Customs and the National Crime Squad and demonstrates that by working abroad as well as at home, we can have a huge impact on class A drugs in the UK.

"Customs law enforcement has totally dismantled a sophisticated international drug trafficking organisation.

"These criminals enjoyed wealthy lifestyles with big houses, plush cars and fast boats. We will make every effort to pursue not only the criminals and the drugs but their profits too and hit the criminals where it hurts them most - their pockets."

Jim Fitzpatrick, Customs deputy chief investigator said: "These sentences are a stark warning to those who traffic in dangerous drugs.

"We will pursue their ill-gotten gains as a result of their illegal activity to the maximum that the law allows."

Detective Inspector Dave King, from the National Crime Squad, added: "It is always satisfying when the courts recognise the seriousness of these offences.

"Both the National Crime Squad and Customs will continue to work together to bring to justice those who traffic illegal commodities into the UK."