Leader of €440m cocaine plot jailed for 20 years

The leader of a €440m transatlantic cocaine trafficking plot which failed because of a fuel mix-up has been jailed for 20 years.

Stephen Dennis Brown, aged 45, pleaded guilty to the smuggling operation, which fell apart at sea during a botched handover off Dunlough Bay, near Mizen Head, Co Cork.

In 2007, a gang of career criminals had conspired to bring 62 bales of high- grade cocaine on ocean- going catamaran Lucky Day from Barbados to waters off West Cork.

The drugs made up one of the largest ever seizures by Irish authorities and were destined for the British market.

The plan failed when a high-powered 7.8m rigid inflatable boat (rib) being used in the handover stalled because petrol engines had been filled with diesel.

Brown was watching from Mizen Head as a boat capsized, tossing bales into rough seas, before he ordered two other gang members to attempt to rescue the haul.

Follow-up covert surveillance of the gang — codenamed Operation Cromer and involving the London Metropolitan Police and gardaí — found Brown hiding out in Spain.

Det Insp Grant Johnson, from the Met’s serious and organised crime unit, said: “Together we have convicted a sophisticated team of career criminals, who were looking to make vast sums of money dealing in drugs and the misery that brings to many people’s lives.

“Instead, they have received very substantial prison sentences, which I hope will act as a deterrent to others.”

Brown, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty last month to trafficking. He was jailed at a hearing in Woolwich Crown Court.