Twelve people have been sentenced to more than 100 years in prison between them after smuggling 500kg of cocaine worth an estimated £40 million into the UK by sea, following a National Crime Agency investigation. The sentences were handed down at Portsmouth Crown Court on Friday 6 November, as confirmed in the National Crime Agency's own listing of the case.

On 19 August 2024, officers intercepted the group at Medmerry Beach near Selsey, West Sussex, as they tried to retrieve 16 bales of cocaine from the ocean. The drugs had been dropped at sea for the gang to collect and move on to other criminal groups across the country.

Ringleaders jailed for 22 and 16 years

Crime group leaders Daniel Jamieson, 41, and Sam Brown, 33, received 22 years and 16 years and six months respectively, according to Hits Radio News. Other sentences included 14 years for oil rig worker David Paterson, who had been involved in an earlier failed attempt to recover the drugs, and 14 years for Lewis Watts, described as Jamieson's right-hand man who coordinated the smuggling operation. Carl Powner was jailed for 13 years and Adil Nolan for 11 years and three months.

The case is one of several large at-sea cocaine seizures investigated by the NCA in recent weeks. In a separate case last month, five smugglers were jailed after 425kg of cocaine worth £34 million was hauled off a fishing vessel into Eastbourne Marina. The Medmerry Beach sentences underline how organised crime groups continue to use drops in the English Channel to bring large quantities of Class A drugs ashore, and how long the resulting prison terms can be when the whole network is brought before the courts.