Out of the wall of Atlantic sea fog rolling into the Cornish village of Newlyn, a vast container ship looms.
Its maroon hull is barely visible in the distance and any smaller vessels around disappear into thick grey blanket hanging above the waves. For tourists, this grim apparition may be the sign to retreat inside to escape the dreary day.
But in years gone by, such a day would traditionally have been favoured by the county’s infamous smugglers who sailed past customs ships with crates of tea and rum to reach Cornwall’s white shores.
Of course, the approach is perilous. Fingers of rock protrude from the shore, barely visible beneath the surface but deadly to strike. Even for a seasoned sailor, local knowledge is almost always essential.
The tales of 18th and 19th century smugglers in Cornwall has long since passed into local legend. Yet once again, rumours of brazen smugglers has started to bubble up in the old coastal taverns that pepper the cliffs.
The reality is that South American cocaine cartels are targeting quintessential English fishing villages in Cornwall as potential entry points into the UK drugs market, the Daily Mail can reveal.
The favourite method of smuggling gangs these days are ‘at-sea drop offs’. Criminals will throw GPS-tagged bales of cocaine into the ocean for smaller boats to come collect.
These smaller ships, often skippered by locals, will navigate the dangerous waters and hidden outcrops of rocks off the coast to land the drugs safely on shore before passing them to distributors.
Andy Wheeler, 63, from Newlyn, is the deputy chief of the Cornish Fish Producers’ Organisation (CFPO), which is accountable for 80 per cent of the fish and shellfish caught in Cornwall.
He told the Daily Mail he was ‘sure’ fishermen of all nationalities were smuggling drugs on the side to supplement their income.
The boat filled with £18million worth of GPS-tagged cocaine crashed into a beach after three men were chased for 28 miles at sea
A ton of high purity cocaine was discovered on a fishing boat called the Lily Lola on September 13 last year
In 2024, a black bale of cocaine (pictured) worth up to an £3.1million was found washed up on the popular beach of Trevaunance Cove in north Cornwall
A container ship appears through the sea fog off Newlyn this. Although there is no suggestion this one is connected to drug smuggling, ships like these have been used to carry drugs to British waters
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Mr Wheeler said: ‘Very occasionally you hear about skippers suddenly retiring well before retiring age and selling their boats.
‘Did they come into inheritance or were they involved with smuggling?
‘I’m sure people have done it and got away with it. There is obviously a [drug smuggling] network.
‘There was a cocaine bust at the beach in Sennen last year. And there was a boat that was scuppered about this time last year down at Lamorna Cove.
‘They found a dinghy ashore, so it was very, very suspicious. The alarm went out that this boat was sinking. Someone must have seen it from the shore.
‘There was no sight of anyone on board or anyone near it.
‘This boat was half sunk and eventually sank. Nobody knows for sure what it was doing there. It was a pretty old, rickety boat. I think it was a wooden one.’
Newlyn (pictured) is the largest fishing port in England by tonnage of fish caught per day
The low tide reveals the smorgasbord of different dangers lurking beneath the sea
This small dinghy was chased across the sea for 28 miles by Border Force officials before landing on Gwynver Beach in an attempt to smuggle £18million of cocaine into the UK using GPS-tagged cocaine bales
Six large containers containing around 230kg of ‘high-purity cocaine’ in brown blocks (pictured) were later recovered from the ocean
Truro Crown Court heard that seven conspirators had been due to collect 20 bales of cocaine from the sea after they had been dropped there by a cargo ship. Pictured, clockwise from top left, six accomplices: Alex Fowlie, Terry Willis, Scott Johnston, Michael May, Bobbie Pearce and Peter Williams
The seventh was Spanish-speaking Edwin Yahir Tabora Baca (pictured), who joined Johnston and Williams in trying to outrun Border Force officers
The gang of drug smugglers came ashore on Gwynver Beach (pictured), near Land’s End
He said the struggle with smuggling was navigating the rough seas and rocky shore.
‘It’s the sea conditions that make it difficult and there are lots of nooks and crannies,’ he said.
Just last week, a gang who tried to smuggle £18million of cocaine into the UK using this exact method were jailed for a total of more than 80 years.
In September last year, drug smugglers Scott Johnston, 39, Peter Williams, 43, and Spanish speaking Edwin Tabora Baca, 33, were trying to pick up 20 bales of cocaine thrown from a South American cargo ship in an area of the sea famed for its perilous waters.
The trio were using Apple AirTags to find the bales close to Gywnver Beach, off the coast of Land’s End, near Sennen in Cornwall. In Cornish, Gwynver means ‘white water’.
As the ocean swirled around them, their small dinghy contending with the Atlantic swell, the strong tide and the threat of submerged rocks, they only found 11 bales.
Then their plot hit another snag — they were spotted by a Border Force patrol boat, which pursued them on a high-speed chase for 28 miles as the criminals dumped the bales in the water.
Their small boat finally ran ashore on Gwynver Beach, Border Force officials ran after the smugglers and tackled them to the ground.
The Border Force later found six large bales with around 230kg of high purity cocaine floating in the ocean.
After arresting the men and going through their phones, co-conspirators Alex Fowlie, 35, of Chichester; Bobbie Pearce, 29, of Brentwood, Essex; Michael May, 47, also of Kelveden Hatch, Essex; and Terry Willis, 44, of Chelmsford, Essex, were arrested.
All were found guilty of being part of the plot to smuggle millions worth of cocaine into the UK.
During sentencing, Judge Jame Adkin said: ‘This was an international conspiracy to smuggle a large quantity of cocaine into the UK via a smuggling operation into the South West.’
The judge said two organised crime groups were involved — one in the South West involving the boat and retrieval of the drugs from the sea and the other in Essex where the cocaine would have been taken to be cut, divided and sold to dealers.
Tabora Baca was jailed for 17 years and seven months and will be deported, Johnston was jailed for 24 years, Willis for 21 years and eight months, and May was jailed for 19 years.
The other three men involved in the conspiracy – Pearce, Fowlie and Williams – will be sentenced at a later date.
Speaking to the Mail this week, a vagabond living just around the coast from Newlyn said he had watched small boats approaching container ships under the cover of darkness
Pictured: A fishing boat makes its way into Newlyn Harbour in the early hours of the morning
South American drug cartels have been targeting Cornwall as part of their bid to supply the UK with cocaine
A small vessel comes into the harbour of Newlyn as a container ship looms in the distance
Barry Chivers, 68, (pictured) has been a fisherman in Newlyn for more than half a century, since he was just 15 years old. He said Cornish men spent ‘too much’ time drinking and taking drugs to be relied upon as fishermen
A row of gulls watch over the harbour at Newlyn in south Cornwall, where Border Force officials often watch out for drug smugglers
Even when the fog comes rolling in off the sea, the harbour remains busy, with ships and lorries coming in and out all day
In 2018, a catamaran loaded with 1.4 tons of cocaine worth £112million was intercepted off Cornwall and brought to Newlyn
Two British men and three Europeans were found guilty of conspiracy to import cocaine and jailed after a trial at Bristol Crown Court. Pictured: The catamaran they used
But this successful capture and conviction is not a surprise. For years, cocaine cartels from South America have been exploring new ways to smuggle their drugs into Britain.
Also in September last year, the National Crime Agency intercepted a fishing boat called the Lily Lola carrying £100million of cocaine near Newquay, north Cornwall.
Four British men were jailed in May this year for a total of 90 years for plotting to smuggle the cocaine.
In 2019, a drug smuggler was jailed for 16 years after trying to smuggle £133million of cocaine hidden in a yacht off the coast of Cornwall.
The Border Force cutter HMC Vigilant intercepted the Dutch-registered boat off the coast of south west Cornwall on July 18, 2018, and the ship was brought into Newlyn Harbour.
Yet while many smugglers are caught, if they slip the net, cocaine is likely to be spread across the south towards London and Essex or up towards Wales, Liverpool and Manchester.
Some drugs may also stay in Cornwall for locals there, as well as for the summer as holidaymakers flock to the region, and youngsters gather for festivals such as Boardmasters, which is happening this weekend.
In July this year, the NCA arrested two Brits, an Albanian and a Greek in Somerset after seizing hundreds of kilos of drugs thought to be cocaine from a small boat that is thought to have collected the bales after they were dropped from a cargo ship.
At the time, NCA Regional Head of Investigations Gavin Webb said: ‘The NCA is confronting and dealing with at-sea drugs drop-offs as a priority, focusing on protecting the public, and ensuring illegal drugs do not make it to UK shores.’
Last year, the Border Force seized around 20 tons of Class A drugs across the whole of the UK, a 21 per cent increase in the number of seizures on the previous year.
Around 272 tons of Class B drugs were seized, a 71 per cent increase on the previous year.
A Home Office spokesman told the Mail: ‘Our Border Force officers work tirelessly to intercept dangerous drugs at our borders.
‘This work, alongside our police and international partners, has led to record seizures, helping protect communities and dismantle criminal networks.’
Cocaine cartels have favoured using cargo ships to transport bales of cocaine before throwing them in the sea with GPS trackers attached for smugglers to pick up and transport to shore. There is no suggestion this cargo ship has been used for organised crime
Newlyn and the surrounding coves of Cornwall have seen a flurry of drug smuggling in recent years
In 2023, a beach cleaner found a bag of cocaine that had washed up on the shore at Upton Beach in Bude, north Cornwall
The package was given to the police, who determined it had a street value of around £100,000
In April, the Border Force launched Project Kraken, an appeal for locals to report suspicious activity along the coast.
Border Force chiefs released a list of warning signs for the public to watch out for that included boats meeting at sea, ships mooring in odd places at strange times and suspicious packages washing up on the shore.
Bosses are also on the lookout for new ways drug smugglers could use to take cocaine to shore.
One in particular they are watching for is the use of small, unmanned submarines, the likes of which have been caught smuggling drugs in South America.
Speaking to the Mail this week, a resident living just around the coast from Newlyn said he had watched small boats approaching container ships under the cover of darkness.
Another local said while freighters would often sit in the waters off Newlyn for days waiting for orders to come in, no one would check who – or what – left the ship at night.
Other locals think drugs gangs have simply cottoned onto the fact that Cornwall was associated with smuggling for a reason – and the benefits of its location remain to this day.
Four British men were jailed in May this year for a total of 90 years for plotting to smuggle cocaine aboard the Lily Lola (pictured)
The vessel was intercepted by officials from the National Crime Agency and blocks of cocaine worth a total of £100million seized
Just as in the 18th and 19th centuries, few people would openly speak down about smuggling – which is once again seemingly a thriving, and lucrative, local industry.
Yet many locals also agreed that drugs have hurt other industries, such as fishing.
Barry Chivers, 68, has been a fisherman in Newlyn for more than half a century, since he was just 15 years old.
In that time, the industry has changed drastically because of drink and drugs, he said.
Mr Chivers told the Mail: ‘It’s completely different now. If it weren’t for the Filipinos, the Ghanaians and the Poles, those boats wouldn’t go to sea. They can’t get a stable, local crew.’
He said Cornish men spent ‘too much’ time drinking and taking drugs to be relied upon.
He added: ‘There are one or two youngsters that have come into the industry and are doing well and are good lads and hardworking.
‘If they like the beer too much and don’t turn up to go to sea, that’s no good to a skipper.
‘But most of these bigger boats wouldn’t go to sea if they didn’t have the Fillipinos.’
Mr Chivers remembered seeing teams of NCA agents swarm on Newlyn harbour during a drugs bust years ago but hasn’t spotted anyone since.
‘This coastline is so big that you can come to shore anywhere,’ he said. ‘It must be very difficult [to police it].’
The CFPO’s Mr Wheeler added: ‘The price of fish is really good at the moment so any professional fisherman could quite easily make a decent living.
‘The boats this year have been earning good money.
‘Trawlers come and go. They unload their catch. If nobody had any suspicions, to anyone watching they’d just be doing their normal thing.
The picturesque fishing village of Newlyn, near Penzance, has played host to drug smuggling busts
All along the coast of Cornwall, rocks are submerged in peculiar place, some of them far out at sea
It takes a great deal of local knowledge and experience to be able to sail these waters
The deputy chief of the Cornish Fish Producers’ Organisation (CFPO), Andy Wheeler, 63, from Newlyn, said he was ‘sure’ fishermen of all nationalities were smuggling drugs on the side to supplement their income
When the sea fog clears, Newlyn Harbour has a view of St Michael’s Mount near Penzance
‘There are often several of these coasters [coastal container ships] anchored up. They come in and wait for orders.
‘They’re just hanging around waiting for their next [job].
‘Five or six years ago there was a big catamaran loaded with cocaine and the Border Force dragged her in here.
‘The Border Force come in once a month in a big grey cutter. Fast, stealthy things and they don’t show up on AIS [tracking].
‘It’s been very, very difficult to recruit younger people into the industry. Skippers of the larger boats in particular have plugged that gap by getting people from overseas.
‘Fishing can be quite lucrative and it’s hard as a job. They’re working at sea for a week or more and are coming in and they’ve got wads of money.
‘They’ve got two or three days to let of steam, see their family or have a good time.
‘What would you do? You go get pissed and get some recreational drugs.’
Despite the growing threat, Cornwall’s police force told the Daily Mail that it did not investigate drug smuggling.
The police also refused to comment on how the community might be impacted by drug smuggling in Cornwall.
While it said its officers help the National Crime Agency and the Border Force in the county, the police said they never took the lead. The NCA refused to comment.
