Drug smugglers have taken to fitting huge hauls of cocaine with trackers and leaving them to float at sea in efforts to beat authorities.
The UK Border Force warned ‘at-sea-drop-offs’ (ASDOs) are now a ‘significant and persistent threat’.
It says South American gangs are wrapping up tens of millions of pounds’ worth of cocaine at a time and fixing to devices whose live location can be viewed by their clients in the British drug underworld.
The packages are transported across the Atlantic on so-called ‘mother’ ships, officials say.
Once they reach British waters, they throw the packages overboard and contact UK criminals using satellite phones who then locate them and pick them up on ‘daughter’ boats.
Charlie Eastaugh, maritime director at Border Force, told the BBC ‘we are able to identify, track, locate, seize and ultimately prosecute and imprison those that are involved’.
One such case saw officers – with the help of sniffer dogs – find a £50 million cocaine haul hidden among bananas on a ship in January.
‘They were bundled into around 30kg blocks, with life jackets which would then be inflated… and that would be thrown overboard,’ Mr Eastaugh said.
Another case saw four British smugglers caught as they tried to bring a £100m ASDO haul into the UK after picking it up off the Cornish coast.
Jon Williams, 46, Patrick Godfrey, 31, Michael Kelly, 45, and Jake Marchant, 27, were found with more than a tonne of cocaine when they were intercepted by National Crime Agency officers before they could bring it ashore.
They were convicted last week at Trury Crown Court.
Derek Evans from the NCA, who led the investigation into the case, warned people working in the fishing community: ‘If someone from a crime group approaches you, please let the police know.
‘If you are tempted to go into this line of industry in the criminal framework, think twice.’
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