LIVERPOOL CRIME GANG LOSES £40M COCAINE IN SEA AFTER GPS TRACKERS FAIL

A Liverpool crime boss and ten associates plotted to retrieve £40 million worth of cocaine from international waters after it was thrown overboard from a container vessel, according to court proceedings. Sam Brown, 33, of Wykeham Street in Kirkdale, was one of 11 individuals involved in the conspiracy. The scheme began on 17 August 2024, when David Paterson, 49, departed from Haslar Marina in Portsmouth in the early hours to collect a 500-kilogram haul. The drugs were dropped approximately 40 nautical miles south of the Needles, west of the Isle of Wight, concealed in waterproof bundles each fitted with a GPS tracker.

Paterson received instructions via WhatsApp from Lewis Watts, 37, who remained on shore, but the container ship sailed past the recovery point before the tracker signal could be acquired. Watts sent increasingly urgent messages: "Big ship has passed you, flash lights" and "Big ship has passed you, chase it and flash lights." The tracking devices malfunctioned and failed to transmit a signal. Paterson, who worked on an oil rig in Scotland during daylight hours, returned to shore without the drugs. On 18 August, the trackers resumed functioning, and the organised crime group hastily assembled a new crew.

On 19 August, Adil Nolan, 40, departed Eastbourne Harbour aboard the rigid-hulled inflatable boat Amma Sigga with two other men to attempt recovery. The three men successfully retrieved 16 bales of cocaine with a reported purity of approximately 85 per cent. The recovered drugs represented a portion of the original 500-kilogram shipment lost overboard.