Two Turkish crewmen convicted of smuggling £500m worth of cocaine on board a ship off the north east of Scotland are due to be sentenced.
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The High Court in Glasgow found the pair guilty of smuggling and a separate charge of being concerned in the supply of the drug after their vessel, MV Hamal, was intercepted in the North Sea, 100 miles from Scottish coast.
Sahin, the captain, was jailed for 22 years and Ozmen, his second in command, for 20 years after the largest ever seizure in the United Kingdom, worth an estimated £512 million.
“You were involved in a most serious operation of commercial scale involving the transportation of cocaine by ship, in an operation which crossed worldwide and indeed intercontinental boundaries”, said Wylie.
He told the ship’s captain Sahin, he was “not at the top of the drugs tree” but had played an important role in the offence, while second captain Ozmen’s role was “to some extent a lesser one”.
Sahin and Ozmen were found guilty of being concerned with the carrying and concealing of cocaine on the ship between 20 February and 23 April a year ago, and of being concerned in the supply of cocaine between 21 April and 23 April.
Investigators soon found an area of floor that had been cemented over in crew quarters, under a medical cabinet. “The court has clearly stated that you don’t have to be a kingpin of an global drug smuggling operation to incur the wrath of the court”.
While defence for dad-of-three Ozmen said: “He accepts the verdict of the jury but maintains his innocence”. “Someone who was involved in the transportation of the drugs”.
Mr Crowe said he is “devastated” about missing out on milestones for his daughter, nine, and son, 13, and “just wants to go home to Turkey”.
The Border force had been tipped-off by the French customs body DNRED. Neither man has seen their family since being taken into custody in April 2015, as their relatives have struggled to get visa approval.
Speaking following today’s sentencing, the Crown agent, David Harvie said: “The worldwide drugs trade does not respect borders, and those of us whose job it is to dismantle it are working ever-closer together to ensure we stay one step ahead”.
But the CPS’s Criminal Justice Advisor in Tanzania managed to obtain authority “from the highest political level” within 24 hours, it added.
John McGowan, senior investigating officer for the NCA, said in a statement that the search was “lengthy and painstaking, undertaken by hugely skilled specialists working in hard conditions”.
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“The Hamal was identified after an intelligence tip-off from French authorities, and swift co-operation from the Attorney General in Tanzania where the ship was registered allowed it to be boarded”, he said.
