ANOTHER two men have been convicted for their roles in a drug trafficking gang caught in a National Crime Agency (NCA) operation in a West Somerset harbour last year.

One was jailed for more than 20 years by Taunton Crown Court Judge Paul Cook on Thursday (April 23).

The gang had attempted to smuggle cocaine with a £26.5 million ‘street value’ through Watchet Marina after the drugs had been dropped into the sea in the Bristol Channel by a passing cargo ship on July 30 last year.

A rigid hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) called the ‘Guzzla’ had gone out to collect the drugs with Craig Nuttall, aged 51, Greek national Anestis Tsepa, aged 25, and 39-year-old Albanian Melios Delvina aboard, while Nuttall’s 48-year-old brother Raymond waited on shore.

All four were earlier jailed for periods ranging from 10 years and seven months to 16 years.

Now, following a two-week trial Colin Benson, aged 60, has been convicted, along with Joshua Rose, aged 38, who had changed his plea to guilty shortly before the trial was due to start.

Benson and Rose, both from Longton, in Preston, Lancashire, were arrested by NCA officers four months after the Watchet drugs seizure.

The pair had waited on the shore in Watchet for the return of the ‘Guzzla’ and fled in their respective vehicles immediately after NCA officers arrested the other four and drove in convoy back to Preston.

Benson had driven back and forth from Preston to the marina on a number of occasions before the day of the drugs collection, to plan the event, and met up with his friend Raymond Nuttall, along with Tsepa and Delvina, the day before.

He had visited Watchet on four separate days immediately before the drugs collection, with his red Range Rover picked up by ANPR cameras during his trips south.

Benson met the Nuttalls on three separate occasions, including in the marina car park and was watched by NCA officers in and around the Nuttalls’ van on the day before the collection, and the hours leading up to the importation.

He was seen on the evening of July 30 with Raymond Nuttall shortly before the RHIB returned to Watchet.

Investigations showed Benson and Rose were linked financially, with a company connected to Rose making 24 separate payments to Benson in the period of a year before and after the drugs importation.

Benson has now been sentenced to 20 years and six months imprisonment.

Rose will be sentenced at a later date.

NCA senior investigating officer Alan French said: “Benson and Rose adopted the role of bystanders and clearly did not want to embark on such a risky journey to collect this valuable cargo.

“However, they played a central role in planning the conspiracy.

“When their accomplices were arrested, they knew the game was up and left the scene in haste.

“It is possible they thought law enforcement would not bother to make them accountable for their crimes, but the NCA will never cease in bringing those involved in smuggling class A drugs to justice.”