A man who organised a maritime operation to import millions of pounds worth of cocaine into the UK was jailed for 16 years after admitting conspiracy to import Class A drugs, a court heard.
Alex Fowlie, 35, of Chichester, was sentenced at Truro Crown Court after prosecutors said his role in a plan to bring £18.4 million of cocaine from South America into the UK was uncovered by phone records and other evidence. The smuggling attempt collapsed last September when Border Force officers spotted a rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) on the horizon, pursued it for about 28 miles and arrested three men who were seen discarding bales of drugs into the sea before the craft came ashore near Gwynver Beach, close to Land's End in Cornwall.
Prosecutor Frederick Hookway told the court that six large containers containing roughly 230kg of "high-purity cocaine" were later recovered from the ocean. He said Fowlie had recruited and organised teams to operate on the water, purchased the inflatable boat used to collect the parcels and a Ford Ranger to tow it, and used an encrypted messaging service to pitch the opportunity to accomplices.
The court heard recordings of voice messages sent by Fowlie three days after the foiled drop in which he told associates: "And also there's zero f*****g risk because you keep an eye out, you've got your radars, if you see anything coming towards you just drop it back in. It's got its GPS and we come out with the RIBs, as soon as it's ashore, they load it up and take it away." Hookway said Fowlie's involvement was initially "in the shadows" and identified through phone contact before being fully traced.
Defence counsel Craig Rush denied Fowlie was a ringleader, saying his client acted as part of a "bespoke courier service" transporting consignments from sea to land. Rush told the court that Fowlie became involved after his business failed in 2023 and had not been paid for the shipment, describing the non-payment as "hard luck" rather than evidence of a leadership role. The defence also said Fowlie had struggled with a "middle class social" cocaine addiction and had sought to change his life while on remand.
Fowlie was arrested in December 2024 and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import Class A drugs. Judge James Adkin imposed a 20-year sentence, which was reduced by 20% to 16 years to reflect his early guilty plea, and ordered a five-year crime prevention order on his release. The judge said Fowlie "appeared to perform a supervisory role in this endeavour."
He was the last defendant to be sentenced in a case that resulted in multiple long prison terms for other members of the network. Scott Johnston, 38, and Edwin Yahir Tabora Baca, 33, were jailed for 24 years and 17 years 7 months respectively after attempting to flee pursuing officers at sea. Peter Williams, 43, received 16 years and nine months; Bobbie Pearce, 29, was sentenced to 15 years and four months. Michael May and Terry Willis, who helped organise collection of the cocaine, were jailed for 19 years and 21 years 8 months respectively.
CCTV and National Crime Agency inquiries examined harbour footage showing some defendants inspecting boats prior to the interception, and investigators used phone-tracking and messaging intelligence to link the group. Court material said Fowlie travelled to Newquay on Sept. 11 and returned to Chichester around Sept. 15; his phone could not be tracked to the Land's End area on Sept. 13, the date on which the attempted landing took place.
Police and Border Force operations continue to target maritime drug trafficking into the UK. Large-scale attempts to offload narcotics from vessels at sea have increased scrutiny on coastal monitoring, intelligence-sharing and rapid response capabilities, which in this case led to the interception, prosecutions and the recovery of significant quantities of cocaine.