UKP90M COCAINE SMUGGLER JAILED FOR 26 YEARS

A DRUG smuggler was jailed for 26 years yesterday for leading a bungled
operation to bring a record UKP90 million consignment of cocaine into
Britain by yacht.

Michael Tyrrell, 55, and five of his accomplices were caught by 150 Customs
officers on the Isle of Wight after their landing was hampered by storms at
the end of a 3,000-mile voyage across the Atlantic from the Caribbean.

They had planned to unload 879lb of cocaine on Tyrrell's private beach near
Ventnor but the weather and the failure of their outboard motor forced them
to deposit their cargo at another beach about a mile away.

They were trapped and arrested after members of the gang had spent hours
carrying large bales of the drug along a treacherous cliff-top path to
their original destination.

Sentencing Tyrrell and four others at Snaresbrook Crown Court in London,
Judge Timothy King said: "Drug smuggling is a scourge on our society.

"The clear message I send out today to other traffickers of drugs and
addictive substances is one of zero tolerance."

Tyrrell, a father of three who was born in Britain, called himself the
"first white Rastafarian of Antigua" after the island where he grew up. He
was found guilty last month at the end of a six-month trial.

The judge told him: "You were the boss, the governor, the man at the top of
this operation. The man who others looked to for instruction. This was your
brainchild."

The cocaine had been brought to the Isle of Wight on a 37ft yacht from the
island of Bequia, near St Vincent.

Tyrrell had bought Orchard Bay House for UKP657,000 in 1999. The house,
which has its own private beach where they had intended to land the
cocaine, was built 150 years ago as a base in the battle against smugglers,
the court was told.

Customs and Excise, and the National Crime Squad, had Tyrrell under
surveillance between July and October 2000 when the gang was caught in an
operation which led to the largest cocaine seizure in Britain.

The judge told Tyrrell: "I regret that you are a British Citizen, for the
welfare of the country. I wish I could recommend you to the Home Secretary
for deportation." Four of his accomplices were also jailed.

Robert Kavanagh, an American citizen, was sentenced to 24 years in prison.

Herman Henao, a Colombian who pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing was
given 13 years, while two Frenchmen, Laurent Penchef and Didier Le Brun
were each given 18 years. The judge said: "The likes of you are like a
cancer on the society of the UK.

"I and my colleagues deal on a daily basis with people whose lives have
been ruined beyond repair by drug addiction. These are ordinary people that
have been moved to commit crime in order to feed their craving."

Paul Boateng, the Customs minister, yesterday welcomed the convictions. He
said: "This is an excellent result for Customs and the National Crime Squad
and demonstrates that by working abroad as well as at home, we can have a
huge impact on class A drugs in the UK."