Smugglers caught with £100m of cocaine in fishing boat at seaside coast jailed for 90 years

Daily Record

09-05-2025

The British men were onboard a fishing boat called the Lily Lola that was intercepted by a Border Force vessel off the coast of Cornwall last September.
Four men convicted of attempting to smuggle cocaine worth £100million on a fishing boat off the British coast have been handed a total of 90 years in prison. The British men were aboard a fishing vessel, named Lily Lola, which was intercepted by a Border Force vessel last September, with one of the conspirators found snoozing in a deck chair.
Michael Kelly, 45, from Manchester, and Jake Marchant, 27, of no fixed address, had previously confessed to plotting to smuggle over a tonne of the Class A drug. Jon Williams, 45, and Patrick Godfrey, 31, both of Swansea, denied the same charge but were found guilty by a jury at Truro Crown Court back in March.
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The National Crime Agency (NCA), which led the investigation, reported that 1,076kg of high-grade cocaine was discovered on the fishing boat on September 13 last year. Shortly after 2pm that day, the Border Force cutter HMC Valiant - patrolling off Cornwall's north coast - dispatched an inflatable boat to intercept the Lily Lola.
Williams, who had purchased the boat for approximately £140,000 two months prior, was at the helm. Marchant, with no fixed address, was beside him.
Kelly was in the accommodation area whilst Godfrey was asleep in a deck chair.
The Lily Lola was escorted to a secure port, where the seized substances, divided into bales, were removed and tested, confirming them to be high purity cocaine.
An electronic device that had been on board the Lily Lola was downloaded and some messages were recovered - these demonstrated the boat receiving instructions and co-ordinates from a third party.
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Godfrey's phone revealed a message he had sent to someone instructing them to 'delete everything u see and not show anybody'.
His device also showed an internet search for 'how long does it take a ship to leave Peru to UK'.
A tracker discovered in the drug stash led NCA investigators to a user based in South America.
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Williams, Godfrey and Marchant made no comment during their interviews, while Kelly insisted he was on a fishing trip.
However, when confronted with the evidence against them, Kelly and Marchant pleaded guilty at Truro Crown Court on October 15 lastr year.
The four men were back in court on Thursday. Williams received a sentence of 26 years, Godfrey 25 years, Marchant 18 years and Kelly 21 years.
NCA branch commander Derek Evans said: "The NCA works around the clock to fight the threat of Class A drugs which wreck people's lives and devastate our communities.
"Working with Border Force and the Joint Maritime Security Centre, we prevented a huge haul of cocaine from hitting the streets of the UK and wider Europe and ensured organised criminals are deprived of the significant profits they would have gained had these drugs made it into the country."