Five jailed over bid to smuggle cocaine worth £34m into Eastbourne Marina

The men were arrested by National Crime Agency (NCA) officers on 8 June this year as they hauled 425kg of cocaine off the New Horizon fishing vessel at Sovereign Harbour – an amount the NCA says is worth £34 million.

At Hove Crown Court on Friday (October 23), Alan John Colquhoun, 49, and William Donohoe, 38, were both sentenced to 16 years in prison, reduced from 24 years for their early guilty pleas.

Ian Smith, 50, of New College Close, Eastbourne, was sentenced to 12 years reduced from 18 for his guilty plea.

Daniel Ruffell, 36, was sentenced to eight years reduced from 12 for admitting his guilt.

Jacob Cronin, 32, of Elgar Way, Eastbourne, was sentenced to six years and eight months, reduced from 10 years for his early guilty plea.

The NCA said Colquhoun and Donohoe expected ‘an £80,000 pay day’ from the haul.

An NCA spokesperson said: “The Class A drugs had been bundled up in waterproof bags, fitted with a GPS tracker, and dropped overboard from another vessel for Colquhoun and Donohoe’s crew to collect, bring to shore and move on to other crime groups across the country.

“Colquhoun of Oberon, Alloa, Clackmannanshire, and Donohoe, of Sycamore Drive, Craigneuk, Airdrie, led the OCG. They both directed the other men involved and liaised with the crime group that had trafficked the drugs from abroad.

“The duo conducted reconnaissance along the south coast and plotted where was best to bring the drugs ashore. They hired a van in Scotland and lied that it would be used to move pub stock, before driving it south to move the cocaine.”

The NCA says that Colquhoun and Donohoe recruited Smith, a fisherman by trade, to sail out and find the illegal haul.

A spokesperson added: “Donohoe stayed on dry land while the others were at sea – he was arrested at a petrol station.

“Ruffell, who hid in a cupboard on board the boat when NCA armed officers stormed it, acted as the OCG’s lookout. He owed the OCG behind the importation a significant debt and joined the crew to help pay it off.”

NCA Senior Investigating Officer Carl Barrass 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.

“Tackling the Class A drugs threat is a priority for the NCA and we will keep working with partners at home and abroad to keep these vile substances out of our communities where they cause huge damage.”

Shilpa Chauhan, of the Serious Economic Organised and International Crime Division (SEOCID) at 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 in this operation, from those who organised and directed the conspiracy, to those who carried out its logistics on the ground.

"The CPS worked closely with the National Crime Agency to build a strong case, and we are pleased to have secured guilty pleas from all defendants. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to prosecute those involved in organised drug trafficking."

Expert National Deep Rummage Team officers from Border Security Command Maritime supported the National Crime Agency’s search of the vessel, helping secure vital evidence to build a case against these drug smugglers.

The NCA investigation was also assisted by the Maritime, Aviation and Military Intervention Cell (MAMIC), Sussex Police and Police Scotland where a number of searches were carried out.