Men guilty after 750kg of cocaine seized from boat in Fishguard

Two men have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import cocaine after one of the largest hauls of the drug in UK history was found on board a boat.

About 750kg of cocaine was recovered from the boat in Pembrokeshire in August.

Gary Swift, 53, and Scott Kilgour, 41, from Liverpool, were arrested on board the yacht about a mile off the Fishguard coast.

The pleas were made at Swansea Crown Court. They next appear in December.

The National Crime Agency (NCA), working closely with the Spanish National Police, identified the SY Atrevido boat as carrying the large cocaine shipment.

Swift and Kilgour were stopped on 27 August, after Border Force cutter HMC Protector was dispatched and intercepted the yacht.

The vessel was searched, with 751kg cocaine found with a purity of up to 83%, the NCA said.

Scott Kilgour (L) and Gary Swift (R) were arrested on board the yacht about a mile off the Fishguard coast

Drugs officers searched the yacht at Fishguard harbour

It added that the quantity found would have a wholesale value of about £24m and a potential street value of £60m.

Craig Naylor, NCA deputy director of investigations, said: "Drugs fuel violence and exploitation, damaging communities and leaving destruction in their wake.

"Seizing this large quantity of cocaine will have had a huge impact on the organised crime group - damaging their reputation amongst other criminals, and ultimately stripping them of their assets."

Four others - three men aged 23, 31, 47, and a woman aged 30 - were arrested in Liverpool and Loughborough in connection with the seizure, and remain on bail until November.