Two Turkish men jailed for smuggling £500m worth of cocaine on board a ship in the North Sea

Emin Ozmen (left) and Mumin Sahin (right) Credit: NCA

Two Turkish men been jailed for at least 20 years for smuggling £500 million worth of cocaine on board a ship in the North Sea in April 2015.

Mumin Sahin and Emin Ozmen were found guilty last month after three tonnes of the Class A drug were discovered inside the MV Hamal about 100 miles off the coast of Aberdeen.

Sahin, 47, was sentenced to 22 years while Ozmen, 51, received a 20-year term at the High Court in Glasgow.

The MV Hamal was intercepted off Aberdeen. Credit: NCA

  • Haul was 'largest' UK seizure of class A drugs

The seizure was the UK’s biggest ever class A drug haul and is thought to be the biggest single cocaine haul ever recovered at sea in Europe.

More than 100 bales of of cocaine were found hidden inside a tank deep with the ship's hull. Credit: NCA

The drugs were found hidden in a specially-adapted secret hold in the hull of the Tanzanian-registered tugboat.

It had sailed from Istanbul to Tenerife and then to the North Sea, when it was stopped by the Royal Navy frigate HMS Somerset and Border Force cutter HMC Valiant.

A National Crime Agency officer watches the tug boat as it is intercepted. Credit: NCA

  • Judge: Men 'involved in a most serious operation"

During sentencing, Judge Lord Kinclaven said the quantity of drugs was "not only significant but massive" and drugs trafficking had a "devastating impact" on people and communities.

He also said Sahin, who was the ship's captain, was "not at the top of the drugs tree" but had played an important role in the offence, while second captain Ozmen's role was "to some extent a lesser one".

"You were involved in a most serious operation of commercial scale involving the transportation of cocaine by ship, in an operation which crossed international and indeed intercontinental boundaries," he added.

  • NCA hails "truly international investigation"

The National Crime Agency senior investigating officer John McGowan said the sentencing is the culmination of a "truly international investigation into a seizure that was unprecedented in its scale for Scotland, the UK and Europe".

"Although the final destination for this haul of drugs is likely to have been mainland Europe there is no doubt in my mind that some of it would have ended up on the streets of the UK, fuelling further criminality," he added.