The UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) stated that Border Force officers intercepted Bruce Knowles, 55, and Ferhat Gumrukcuoglu, 31, near East Benacre Broads in Suffolk in late June, as they tried to swim away from a rigid-hulled inflatable boat loaded with drugs.
According to the NCA, Gumrukcuoglu leaped into the water, swimming towards the shore, while Knowles scrambled to restart the engines in a last-ditch effort to escape. However, the chase was brief as the boat soon ran aground, forcing Knowles to abandon ship and dive into the sea, where officers quickly apprehended him.
Norfolk and Suffolk Police tracked Gumrukcuoglu after he fled the beach, capturing him later that day in Wrentham, Norfolk. Meanwhile, the boat was towed to a harbor in Lowestoft, where NCA officers discovered the $51 million drug stash concealed beneath tarpaulin.
Investigators believe the pair traveled to French waters to collect the drugs from a larger ship before attempting to smuggle them into the UK.
After remaining tight-lipped during interviews, both men were charged with importing a controlled drug and later admitted their guilt at Ipswich Crown Court.
Lydia Bloomfield, branch commander of the National Crime Agency, suspects that Knowles and Gumrukcuoglu were linked to a larger organized crime syndicate.
“Thanks to the work of our Border Force and Joint Maritime Security Centre partners, a very significant amount of class A drugs have been removed from the criminal marketplace where they would have fuelled further criminality and exploitation,” she concluded.