Fishing boat skipper sentenced to 16 years for attempting to smuggle a tonne of cocaine into the UK

Michael McDermott is now starting a 16 year jail sentence after he was found guilty of attempting to smuggle cocaine, worth £84 million, into the UK

7 April 2017

A fishing boat skipper, who tried to smuggle around a tonne of cocaine into the UK, has been sentenced to 16 years in jail.

The judge at Bristol Crown Court also jailed Michael McDermott’s two shipmates – David Pleasants, 57, and Gerald Van de Kooij, 27.

Pleasants was handed a 14 year sentence, while de Kooij was jailed for 12 years.

McDermott, from Waterford, Ireland, had earlier been found guilty of attempting to smuggle the drugs on the MV Bianca. He had denied the charge.

L-R: Gerald Van de Kooij, Michael McDermott and David Pleasants. Credit: NCA

The 68-year-old claimed that he knew there were drugs on board the MV Bianca but had been forced into shipping them. He also denied knowing Pleasants and de Kooij

McDermott, who had a previous conviction for drug trafficking, was described as a “crucial link in a chain that leads from cocaine manufacturers in South America to drug dealers in the UK”.

£80m of cocaine seized from fishing trawler off Falmouth

Pleasants and de Kooij both admitted drug importation offences.

The MV Bianca was intercepted by two Border Force cutters off the coast of Cornwall on 18 August 2016.

Bianca is tracked by National crime agency officers

The converted fishing trawler, Bianca, is tracked by officers. Credit: NCA

The fishing boat had been tracked via radar for over 24 hours after intelligence from the National Crime Agency that it was carrying drugs.

It was escorted to Falmouth where a full search took place.

Bales of cocaine were found hidden under bags of sand and gravel in the boat’s fish hold. In total, 939 kilos of the drug was found.

Forensic experts found that the drug was between 60 and 70 per cent pure and had a potential UK street value of nearly £84 million.

17 March 2017

The skipper of a fishing boat has been convicted of trying to smuggle around a tonne of cocaine into the UK.

Michael McDermott, 68, from Waterford in Ireland, was found guilty on Thursday 16 March by a jury at Bristol Crown Court following a one week trial.

National Crime Agency and Border Force officers arrested McDermott on 18 August 2016 alongside shipmates David Pleasants, 57, and Gerald Van de Kooij, 27.

Two Border Force cutters, the HMC Seeker and HMC Searcher had tracked his vessel the MV Bianca via radar for over 24 hours, acting on intelligence from the NCA that it was carrying drugs.

The boat was intercepted as it entered UK off the coast of Cornwall, and a joint team of NCA and Border Force officers boarded the vessel and arrested the crew.

The vessel was taken to Falmouth where a full search could take place.

Specialist Border Force teams located bales of cocaine hidden under bags of sand and gravel in the boat’s fish hold. There were 38 bales in total each weighing between 25 and 30 kilos. It took around two days to remove the drugs from the vessel.

In total the haul weighed 939 kilos making it the biggest single seizure of cocaine in the UK in 2016.
Forensic experts found that the drug was between 60 and 70 per cent pure and had a potential UK street value of nearly £84 million.

Both Pleasants and Gerald Van de Kooij admitted drug importation offences, but McDermott denied the charge.
He claimed he knew there were drugs on board but had been forced into shipping them. He initially said he didn’t the two men he was arrested with.

McDermott had a previous conviction for drug trafficking, where he had admitted being paid to sail a boat from Spain containing cannabis.

NCA investigators were also able to establish that he had purchased the Bianca in Whitstable, Kent, paying £17,000 in cash just weeks before his arrest, telling the seller that he planned to sail to Spain and use it for diving and chartered angling trips. The bill of sale was also signed by David Pleasants using a false name.

The trial heard how the boat was then taken to Ramsgate for work to be carried out on it. Pleasants was with McDermott while that happened, with the two men sleeping on the boat. Van de Kooij had flown in from the Netherlands on 12th August, a few days before the trio set off on the Bianca from Ramsgate.

Navigation records show the boat sailed through the English Channel and out into the Atlantic, before turning round and heading back towards Cornwall. NCA investigators believe it was at this turnaround point, south of Ireland, that the Bianca took the cocaine on board from another vessel.

Following McDermott’s conviction all three men will be sentenced on Thursday 6 April.

Mark Harding, senior investigating officer from the NCA’s border investigation team, said:

“This was a huge quantity of cocaine, the biggest single seizure made in the UK in 2016.

“Michael McDermott used his specialist skills as a sailor to attempt to evade border controls. We provided solid evidence that led to his conviction and have taken out another means of transport used by organised criminals to bring drugs to Britain.

“His was a crucial link in a chain that leads from cocaine manufacturers in South America to drug dealers in the UK. In stopping this consignment we have prevented further criminality by the gangs who bring violence and exploitation to our streets.”

Mike Stepney, Director National Operations, Border Force said: “The huge haul of dangerous drugs that Michael McDermott and his crew sought to sneak into the UK had the potential to do untold harm to countless people around the country.

“Officers from Border Force and the NCA used sophisticated intelligence and technical expertise to track this vessel and intercept it before its illicit cargo could ever be unloaded.

“The prosecution of this crooked captain and his criminal crew underlines once again how our close work with partners like the NCA is successfully keeping communities in the UK safe from a range of threats.”

CPS Specialist Prosecutor Kate Hurst said: “These men were attempting to import a huge amount of cocaine and prosecutors worked with Border Force and NCA officials from an early stage in order to build the strongest possible case.

“Faced with the overwhelming evidence against them, two of the men on the boat pleaded guilty.

“Michael McDermott denied his guilt but the prosecution clearly demonstrated how he formed a crucial part of the plan to bring these drugs into the country, resulting in the guilty verdict returned by the jury today.”