Drug smugglers use inflatable boat to smuggle 524 kilos of cocaine into Hessle

Video showing Moran at Humber Ribs where he purchased the boat, the offenders preparing and launching the boat at Humber Bridge in Hessle and the landing site at Easington Beach.

Two drug smugglers who attempted to import cocaine with a street value of £42 million into the UK on a small boat have been jailed.

Daniel Livingstone, aged 25, was arrested on 4 May with 524 kilos of cocaine in his van outside a hotel in Lelley in East Yorkshire.

He had stayed the night in the hotel with two other men who conspired with him to smuggle the class A drug; Mark Moran, aged 23, and 40-year-old Didier Tordecilla Reyes.

Mark Moran, Daniel Livingstone and Didier Javier Tordecilla Reyes Credit: National Crime Agency

Earlier that day, Moran, who is from Argyll and Bute, had driven a van and an inflatable boat from Norwich to Grimsby.

There, he met Livingstone, who is also from Argyll and Bute, and Reyes, who is a Columbian national.

The three men then drove to Hessle where Moran and Reyes then sailed the boat from the Hessle slipway.

They returned hours later with the drugs haul and unloaded it at a beach near Easington caravan park.

The NCA shared photographs of the clothes left by the offenders. Credit: NCA

NCA Senior Investigating Officer Alan French said: "There's no doubt these drugs would have been sold into communities around the UK, but working with our partners including Humberside Police and Border Force, we have disrupted this crime group's offending and made a huge dent in any profits they were due to make.

"We are determined to do all we can to tackle the class A drugs threat activity, and protect the public from the horrific damage it causes our society."

A jury at Hull Crown Court convicted Moran of conspiracy to import cocaine on 28 October following an eight-day trial.

Livingstone and Tordecilla Reyes pleaded guilty to the same offence on 5 June and 22 July respectively. A fourth man, also from Argyll and Bute, was cleared by the jury.

At the Hull Crown Court today, 23 December, Moran was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment and Livingstone to seven years and nine months imprisonment. Reyes is due to be sentenced at a later date.