Operation also shed unique light on backgrounds of those involved in running drugs into UK from ‘mother ships’
Public urged to help catch gangs bringing drugs on ‘mother ships’ to UK coast
To the surfers and dog walkers on the Cornish beach it must have looked like a scene from a crime thriller. An ocean chase ending with two boats crunching aground on the sand, a stumbling attempt by three men to escape into the dunes, dramatic arrests and the discovery of millions of pounds of cocaine.
For the investigators it was the start of a painstaking investigation that has shone a unique light into a tactic used by South American drug gangs and British organised crime groups known as at-sea drop-offs or Asdos, in which bales of cocaine fitted with GPS trackers are dumped at sea from a transatlantic “mother” ships to be picked up by small vessels and smuggled into the UK via quiet coves and harbours.
Continue reading...Source: Guardian - World News