UKP 10M NORTH DRUG HAUL'S ROUTE TRACED

THE arrest of two teenagers in Germany set off a chain of events which led
to a 10million ukp drugs haul on a boat at Wick harbour, a court was told.

A German court has heard how the two youngsters were arrested in Hamburg
for selling a small amount of the drug.

They told Police they had stolen the drugs from a house in the city, which
police then raided. Officers were amazed to find a stash of more than 500lb
of Moroccan cannabis.

The Officers also found documents which showed the owner of the 250,000 ukp
yacht Karin

Further inquiries by police and customs in Germany linked the 45ft ketch
Karin to alleged drug-smuggling runs from Morocco to Germany dating back to
1993, which had previously gone undetected.

The German authorities tipped off British Customs officers, who used one of
their high-speed cutters to find the Karin and then trail her up the West
coast of Britain.

The ketch was arrested off Shetland last September and escorted first to
Lerwick and then to Wick. A search by customs officers and police revealed
hidden drugs with a street value of ukp 10 million.

Now Uwe Wolfgang, 38, of Oldenburg, Germany, the former owner of the Karin,
has been sentenced to 3-1/2 years in jail at the County Court in Flensburg,
Germany.

He admitted allowing his vessel to be used for illegal drug runs in 1993
and 1994. Documents found by police clearly showed him to be the Karin's
previous owner. Neither he nor the present owner were on the boat when she
was apprehended on September 20 last year.

Christian Mense, 42, of St Pauli, Hamburg, and Lutz Wellenkamp, 37, a
German citizen living in France, were arrested and have been extradited to
Germany, as the boat was boarded in International waters.

The case involving the two men and the current owner of the yacht, which is
still at Wick Harbour, is pending.