Man dies on Isles of Scilly after Border Agency raid on moored yacht

Seven Spades said:
.... I find it strange that he didn't ditch the load before he called for help or even scuttle the boat and claim he was sunk by a whale.
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It doubt it was stuffed in the cockpit locker. Most likely it was well hidden into the structure of the boat - sealed in the diesel tanks, encapsulated into the keel, bilge. At 440 lbs. this is not a street deal. The owners would have planned for a boarding as being a realistic outcome. Scuttling would not have been a likely option as its all about the money and getting away with it; maybe the guy was a mule and the RNLI picked up the 2 tonnes moored to the sea bed and have now passed it to the UKBF who will arrange distribution. My guess is that they knew about this through intelligence, but thats a guess. It may just have been stuffed into the cockpit locker.
 
Seven Spades said:
Actually I wonder if the UKBA even knew there was anything on board. I find it strange that he didn't ditch the load before he called for help or even scuttle the boat and claim he was sunk by a whale.
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Most of these big catches are as a result of tip offs. It's likely the UKBA will have been monitoring the boat and waiting for it to arrive in the UK to then hop on board. The fact RNLI had to tow it in is a red herring.

Most people on here who have been boarded by UKBA (or equivalent in foreign countries) will be random "stops" to show they're out and about and doing something. You'll notice most of the time they won't actually search (aside from maybe a very superficial look around, which will only be for show).
Most of their real work is based on intel and they will know about boats coming and going that need to be looked out for.
 
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Local landlord's son was on the Excise cutter, we understand that most busts are through intelligence. A mate is skipper of a N Sea oil rig boat, had an issue with a radar echo close to the rig, very much prohibited area, in the end turned out to be the Excise Cutter trying to hide while waiting for a particular vessel coming from Holland, not pleased at being forced into the open.
 
Seven Spades said:
Actually I wonder if the UKBA even knew there was anything on board. I find it strange that he didn't ditch the load before he called for help or even scuttle the boat and claim he was sunk by a whale.
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Not an expert in this area, but I guess customs and excise would be the least of the guys worries if he had to explain to the drugs bosses that he had disposed of £20m of their "assets". I imagine their HR disciplinary procedures don't tend to be long on paperwork and listening to both sides of the arguments
 
Anybody remember a one-off BBC documentary about fifteen years ago, with Quentin Willson following Miami's waterborne drugs squads in their 1000HP launches backed up by machine guns, dog teams, choppers and jets?

Willson ended up attending a massive state-run auction for the boats, cars, booze, wristwatches and iffy artwork which had been confiscated from smugglers. The newly-available boats seemed amazing value compared with such craft on the open market.
 
More than a dozen years ago, an RYA Examiner I knew took me up the lane at Mylor and showed me a beautiful Hans Christian 43 (?), confiscated by HM Customs and due to be auctioned. "If you have any spare cash," he told me, "buy this. It will go for a song." Around £15000, as I recall....
 
Lip is well frayed owing to over-biting during this thread's progress with the ignorant inputs of the usual anti-authority 'experts' who have now gone rather silent, hopefully realising the foolishness of their spoutings.
The fuel cans on deck were a screaming 'combat-indicator' of smuggling.
Another great result from Project Kraken, albeit the aims of it slightly differ from drugs, but criminality is criminality.
 
Woodlouse said:
The problem with buying cheap boats that have been used for drug running is that they have been torn apart inside to ensure all the cargo is found.
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Mine wasn't, although they didn't put all the screws back. Oddly enough, the boat was sold on with a wide selection of flares which had been on the boat since the drugrunners bought her. The flares were still intact when I handed them (the flares) in to Brixham coastguard, full of white powder........ Although having moved 90kg of cocaine I don't suppose the crims would have bothered hiding 500g....
 
Seatrout said:
Lip is well frayed owing to over-biting during this thread's progress with the ignorant inputs of the usual anti-authority 'experts' who have now gone rather silent, hopefully realising the foolishness of their spoutings.
The fuel cans on deck were a screaming 'combat-indicator' of smuggling..........
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How so (with the cans), I've seen lots of boats with cans on deck?

For what it's worth I think the "war" on drugs is a foolish waste of time and resources and merely gives governments and its agencies powers that we wouldn't otherwise allow them to have.

dunedin said:
Not an expert in this area, but I guess customs and excise would be the least of the guys worries if he had to explain to the drugs bosses that he had disposed of £20m of their "assets". I imagine their HR disciplinary procedures don't tend to be long on paperwork and listening to both sides of the arguments
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A local man from Nantwich was fairly recently tortured to death after having £20K of his "partner's" money confiscated from him by customs after returning from Holland.
 
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Seatrout said:
Lip is well frayed owing to over-biting during this thread's progress with the ignorant inputs of the usual anti-authority 'experts' who have now gone rather silent, hopefully realising the foolishness of their spoutings.
The fuel cans on deck were a screaming 'combat-indicator' of smuggling.
Another great result from Project Kraken, albeit the aims of it slightly differ from drugs, but criminality is criminality.
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Fuel cans on deck. [removed]
 
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Seatrout said:
Lip is well frayed owing to over-biting during this thread's progress with the ignorant inputs of the usual anti-authority 'experts' who have now gone rather silent, hopefully realising the foolishness of their spoutings.
The fuel cans on deck were a screaming 'combat-indicator' of smuggling.
Another great result from Project Kraken, albeit the aims of it slightly differ from drugs, but criminality is criminality.
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If many of the original posters have gone silent for a while, its not because we're anti-authority or foolish. On the contrary, its because many have been on the thick end of authoritarian stupidity, hence the circumspection.

Jolly glad however the supply was nabbed.
 
savageseadog said:
How so (with the cans), I've seen lots of boats with cans on deck?

For what it's worth I think the "war" on drugs is a foolish waste of time and resources and merely gives governments and its agencies powers that we wouldn't otherwise allow them to have.

Well said B. Its worth lots.

A local man from Nantwich was fairly recently tortured to death after having £20K of his "partner's" money confiscated from him by customs after returning from Holland.
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Well said B
 
Babylon said:
If many of the original posters have gone silent for a while, its not because we're anti-authority or foolish. On the contrary, its because many have been on the thick end of authoritarian stupidity, hence the circumspection.

Jolly glad however the supply was nabbed.
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How do you know 'we' are not 'anti authority',you say it as if that was a bad thing,do you sail because you like having your sphincter expanded by the boys in black?
 
Mark-1 said:
This guy?

http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/c...ws/2004/07/07/death-by-decree-59067-14400155/

(Disturbing reading, read at your own risk.)
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Yes, that's the one, he only lived a short way from me but I never knew him. When they say in the article that a metal bar was rammed into his body they omit to say up his anus. an end worthy of a Taratino film. My wife was passing at the time and place of his murder in Knutsford a slightly eerie coincidence. A truly horrific crime, I'm not a believer in capital punishment but I do wonder about this one.
 
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