Final member of Watchet £26.5 million cocaine smuggling gang sent to prison

THE sixth and final member of an organised crime gang who tried to smuggle £26.5 million of cocaine into the country through Watchet Marina has been jailed.

The operation was smashed when National Crime Agency (NCA) officers swooped as four of the gang were transferring the drugs to a van on the marina slipway from a rigid hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) called the ‘Guzzla’.

The criminals had used the RHIB to go out to sea and collect packages dropped during the early hours of July 30 last year from a ship sailing through the Bristol Channel.

The four were last year given jail sentences ranging from 10 years and seven months to 16 years when they appeared in Taunton Crown Court.

They were brothers Craig Nuttall, aged 51, and Raymond Nuttall, aged 47, both from Preston, Lancashire, Greek national Anestis Tsepa, aged 24, from Thessalonika, who had a handgun with him, and 38-year-old Albanian national Melios Delvina.

Two other gang members who had been nearby and fled when they saw the NCA raid taking place were arrested four months later.

Gang leader Colin Benson, 60, from Longton, Preston, was convicted and jailed for 20 years and six months in April of this year.

The sixth member of the crew was Joshua Rose, aged 38, also from Longton, who changed his plea to guilty shortly before his and Benson’s trial was due to take place in Taunton Crown Court.

Rose admitted participating in the activities of an organised crime group involved in importing drugs into the UK.

Now, Rose has been jailed for three years by Judge Paul Cook, who had also sentenced the other gang members.

Proceeds of crime proceedings remain ongoing, which are legal measures taken to freeze, confiscate, or recover money and assets gained through illegal activity to ensure criminals do not benefit financially from their crimes.