£100m cocaine plot off the Cornish coast

Four drug smugglers have been convicted of attempting to smuggle £100 million worth of cocaine on a fishing boat off the coast of Cornwall.

The crime group was found with more than a tonne of the Class A drug on board their vessel, the Lily Lola, in September last year, following a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation.

Two of the offenders, Michael Kelly, 45, and Jake Marchant, 27, pleaded guilty before trial.

Today, after a trial, Jon Williams, 46, of Windmill Terrace, St Thomas, Swansea, and Patrick Godfrey, 31, of Danygraig Road, Port Tennant, Swansea, were also convicted of smuggling the 1,076kg haul.

The Lily Lola was intercepted just after 2pm on 13 September 2024 by a Border Force crew onboard cutter HMC Valiant off the north coast of Cornwall.

Williams, the captain, had purchased the boat for around £140,000 two months earlier and was at the helm. Marchant, of no fixed abode, was beside him. Kelly, of Portway, Manchester, was in the accommodation area, while Godfrey was asleep in a deck chair.

The Lily Lola was taken into Plymouth Royal Dockyard, where the seized substances- packaged in bales - were removed and tested, confirming them as high-purity cocaine.

Investigators also found a tracker hidden within the drug shipment, which was traced to a user in South America.

During police interviews, Williams, Godfrey, and Marchant gave no comment, while Kelly claimed he was on a fishing trip. However, faced with overwhelming evidence, Kelly and Marchant pleaded guilty at Truro Crown Court on 15 October.

All four men will be sentenced at the same court on 8 May.

NCA branch commander Derek Evans said:

“The NCA and Border Force have prevented a huge haul of cocaine from hitting the streets of the UK and wider Europe, where it would have blighted countless lives and communities.

“We’ve disrupted a drug supply chain and ensured organised criminals are deprived of the significant profits they would have gained had these drugs made it into the country.

“The NCA is working around the clock with partners here and overseas to erode the criminal networks benefiting from the destructive drugs trade.”