Colombians jailed for Tilbury cocaine smuggling

UK Border Agency | Colombians jailed for Tilbury cocaine smuggling: "Two Colombian men who stowed away on a ship for 12 days in an attempt to smuggle 50 kg of cocaine across the Atlantic Ocean were jailed for 14 years on 24 November.

Fredy Wilian Paz Preciado, 30, and Murillo James Rudolfo Quinones, 37, had pleaded not guilty to charges of possession of a controlled substance on international waters, but after an 8 day trial the jury at Basildon Crown Court recorded guilty verdicts.

In passing sentence, Judge Graham said,
'This was international drug running on a very substantial scale'.
Preciado and Quinones were arrested by officers from the UK Border Agency when the Ems Trader, the container vessel they had been hiding on over the Christmas period, docked at the Port of Tilbury on 27 December last year.

The ship had set sail from Colombia on 15 December and stopped at the Port of Rotterdam before travelling on to Tilbury."