10:06am Monday 14th December 2009
By Elizabeth Pears
A MUSWELL Hill man has been cleared of smuggling 91.3 kilos of cocaine into the United Kingdom from the Caribbean.
Ricky Copp, 41, of Cranley Gardens, was found not guilty on December 11, 2009, of being involved with a mass cocaine conspiracy which took place in 2008.
Patrick Walsh, 48, of Watford, and David Coxon, 53, of Newcastle, pleaded guilty. Douglas Wood, 59, of Kent was found guilty by a jury at Southwark Crown Court on Friday.
The court heard that Walsh made repeated trips to Trinidad, Tobago, Barbados and Grenada using the false name Michael Sheridan. He was often accompanied by Coxon and Wood.
Coxon and Walsh viewed a number of yachts in Trinidad, settling on the $40,500 boat FiFi, which they later renamed Ronin.
On July 20, 2008, the pair set sail from Grenada after lying to customs officers about heading to Brazil.
Instead they headed for Bartica, in Guyana, where they are believed to have picked up 91.3 kilos of high quality cocaine straight from the South American jungle.
The pair then sailed back to the UK — heading for Portsmouth — but were stopped 15 miles from the coast of Devon by the Royal Navy and UK Borders Agency on September 12, 2008.
Searches of the yacht found 91.3 kilos of cocaine with a current street value of £10 million.
Mr Copp was cleared of any involvement.
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