COCAINE QUEEN OF THE CARIBBEAN GETS 24 YEARS

A yachtswoman known as the "Cocaine Queen of the Caribbean" was jailed for
24 years yesterday for her role in smuggling a UKP100 million drugs
consignment into Britain.

The sentence on Julie Patterson, 46, is one of the largest given to a woman
drug trafficker.

Patterson, her lover Michael Tyrrell, 55, and others spent months planning
the transatlantic operation.

Their 37ft yacht, Blue Hen, enjoyed an uneventful 32-day voyage from the
Caribbean, heading for Orchard Bar, a private beach on the southern tip of
the Isle of Wight.

But bad weather blew the Blue Hen off course and the gang had to unload the
haul at a beach a mile from the chosen spot.

They struggled ashore on an inflatable dinghy and Patterson and Tyrrell,
with others, staggered for hours along a treacherous clifftop path, at
night, with heavy armfuls of the drugs, contained in 20 large bales.

Cold, irritable and exhausted, they walked straight into a team of police
and Customs investigators, Snaresbrook Crown Court in London was told. It
was one of the largest importations detected in Britain.

Patterson, originally from Norwich, is an accomplished yachtswoman with
three Atlantic crossings to her name. She ran a successful boat charter
business in Antigua.

Despite having hosted a planning summit at her home, and having a handbag
bulging with incriminating documents when arrested, she claimed she simply
followed orders from her lover and never once suspected anything was amiss.
But she was found guilty along with Frederic Fillingham, 42, from Fort
Lauderdale, Florida, who received an 18-year sentence.

Tyrrell, who bought a seafront development at Orchard Bay for UKP657,000 as
the ideal smuggler's headquarters, has already been jailed for 26 years.

Tyrrell, a father of three who grew up on Antigua, became Patterson's lover
in 1994. His long-time girlfriend, Jill Fuller, who is serving four years
for laundering UKP1 million of his profits, knew nothing of the affair.

As well as sailing, Patterson ran the finances of the smuggling operation.

Customs and the National Crime Squad learned of the plot and launched a
joint investigation - Operation Eyeful - in which Tyrrell and Patterson
were kept under surveillance.

Some conversations were tape-recorded. Fillingham was heard telling
Patterson: "That's what I love about you - you are so attentive to all the
details."

The battered yacht was bought in the Caribbean for UKP32,000, repaired and
made ready for the 3,500-mile journey to Britain.

In September 2000, it cast off with a three-strong crew, collected the
drugs from Bequia, an island near St Vincent, and headed for the Isle of
Wight. They arrived on Oct 22.

Judge Timothy King said Patterson played a "very prominent, if not pivotal"
role in the enterprise.

Although she was in a relationship with a "highly manipulative" criminal,
she was his "dedicated ally".

The judge added: "You knew what you were about and you played a very
prominent role, so prominent in fact that your role was almost
indistinguishable from Tyrrell himself."

Like Tyrrell, she commanded "considerable influence and authority" in the
smuggling operation.

Jim Fitzpatrick, the assistant chief investigation officer for Customs,
said: "This gang tried to smuggle a huge quantity of cocaine into the UK
and have received jail terms that reflect the seriousness of their crimes."