Two brothers who pretended to be sea fishermen were caught trying to smuggle £26.5 million of cocaine into Britain.
Craig and Raymond Nuttall were part of a gang that went out in a dinghy to collect the drugs dropped off by a cargo ship.
The pair also went under the guise of trying to sell a Rigid Hulled Inflatable Boat to import the drugs.
The brothers worked with fellow defendants Anestis Tsepa and Melios Delvina to carry out the smuggling plot.
Craig Nuttall, 51, and Raymond Nuttall, 47, both from Preston, arrived at Watchet Marina in Somerset on July 23.
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The pair said they were using a RHIB named Guzzla and told the marina manager that they planned to be in the area for a few days to fish.
On the evening of July 30, they were joined by Greek national Tsepa, 24, from Thessalonika, and 38-year-old Albanian national Delvina.
Raymond Nuttall drove a van down the quayside before removing two jerry cans and a hose from the rear.
Craig Nuttall, Tsepa and Delvina put on lifejackets and headed out to sea at 8:46 pm.
A National Crime Agency spokesperson said: ‘Audio messages later discovered on Tsepa’s device showed that they took the boat out to sea.
‘And they were organising an at-sea drop off where a larger vessel, otherwise known as a mother ship, is believed to have dropped illegal drugs into the sea and was to be collected by a smaller boat.
‘In the background of the messages, the Guzzla’s engine can be heard as they travel, discussing how long it will take their smaller, daughter vessel to arrive.’
They got back over four hours later at 1am on 31 July and began to try to connect the boat to a trailer that Raymond Nuttall had driven down the slipway.
However, NCA officers then stepped in and arrested the four men on suspicion of importation of Class A drugs.
There were 14 packages in total, containing a further 322 smaller packages weighing a kilo each.
The substance inside was tested and found to be cocaine with an 89% purity. The drugs would be worth £26.5 million at street level.
A firearm was also discovered in the boat.
The Nuttalls and Tsepa provided no comment responses in the interview.
Delvina gave a prepared statement in which he said he was unemployed and took work to unload items from a boat into a van with no knowledge of the drugs inside.
The Nuttalls pleaded guilty to the importation of cocaine at Taunton Crown Court on August 29. Tsepa and Delvina admitted the same charges on 5 September.
Tsepa also pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Raymond Nuttall, Craig Nuttall were sentenced to 11-years-and-three-months and 11-years-and-two-months respectively.
Tsepa was given a one-year and four months jail term at the same court yesterday. Delvina is due to be sentenced on December 11.
NCA Regional Head of Investigations Gavin Webb said: said: ‘These men were working as part of an organised crime group, using the cover of darkness to collect a significant amount of cocaine that would have ended up on the streets of the UK.’
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