National Crime Agency says smugglers Scott Johnston and Edwin Yahir Tabora Baca were eventually snagged on Gwynver Beach near Penzance, Cornwall, following a lengthy chase
These dramatic images capture the moment a drugs gang was chased onto a popular UK beach by police.
Scott Johnston, 38, and Edwin Yahir Tabora Baca, 33, had been pursued for 28 miles before they arrested in front of stunned sunbathers on Gwynver Beach near Penzance, Cornwall. The photos, which have been released by the National Crime Agency, show the smugglers racing across the sea closely followed by a second boat.
The men are then seen bolting across the sand before the second boat lands on the beach. Horrified onlookers can be heard shouting in video shared by the agency.
The two criminals had abandoned their rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB), on which also left behind a huge quantity of cocaine, on September 13, 2024. Johnston and Tabora Baca have now been jailed for 24 years, and 17 years and seven months respectively.
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Officers had to spread out, creating a fanlike formation, to ensure the drug gang had no means of escape on Gwynver Beach, which is near Land’s End on the South West Coast Path. Following their arrest, Johnston and Tabora Baca were charged and eventually received their sentences this week.
Johnston, from Havant, Hampshire, and Tabora Baca, of Barcelona, were part of a seven-strong drugs gang. The gang, which organised the collection of the cocaine which had a total worth of £18.4million, was led by Michael May, 47, and 44-year-old Terry Willis.
Six bales of cocaine were recovered from the RHIB, containing 230kg of the illegal drug. May, from Brentwood, Essex, was sentenced to 19 years’ imprisonment while Willis, of Chelmsford, Essex, was caged for 21 years and eight months.
Peter Williams, 43 and from Havant, received a sentence of 16 years and nine months in prison and 29-year-old Bobbie Pearce,of Brentwood, was handed a 15-year and-four-month stint in jail. Williams, the captain of the boat, was a seasoned fisherman who met King Charles multiple times, it is reported.
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Both men were directly involved in the crime group which had planned the secret scheme. Alex Fowlie, 35, will be sentenced on September 5 after it was found that he had supplied the boat.
NCA Senior Investigating Officer, Barry Vinall, said: “These are substantial sentences for six men who didn’t care about the misery cocaine causes, they just wanted to make a profit.
“Cocaine is one of the most harmful illegal drugs in the UK, linked to thousands of deaths and fuelling violent crime that wrecks communities and lives.
“Working together, Border Force stopped cocaine worth millions from making it onto UK streets and the National Crime Agency ensured that the group behind its importation faced justice.”