This is the astonishing moment a British drug runner bragged there was ‘zero f*****g risk’ as he planned further smuggling missions despite an £18m cocaine drop-off attempt being thwarted by the Border Force.
Alex Fowlie, 35, helped engineer a plan to bring the vast quantity of drugs from South America on a cargo vessel across the Atlantic before dumping them in water tight bales into the English Channel and retrieving them with the aid of trackers.
But the plot did not go to plan with the drug laden inflatable boat spotted by Border Force officers, leading to three of the seven gang members being chased for 28 miles out at sea and arrested.
The trio were seen throwing the bales of cocaine into the sea before they stopped at Gwynver Beach near Sennen, Cornwall, last September.
Four of the gang members were jailed on Thursday for a total of more than 80 years, with Fowlie, who purchased the boat used, to be sentenced at a later date along with the two remaining associates.
Audio has now emerged of Fowlie boasting about how likely future smuggling missions were to succeed just three days after the dramatic failure of the cocaine drop-off.
He said: ‘We can have a discussion but we’re good to get a team ready. Basically we just need the fishermen and one of us go out with him and they send one of their lads down to come out and keep an eye on things, in case anything happens.
‘So all we need is a fisherman with a boat, if we can get two that’s great.’
Alex Fowlie, pictured, who engineered a failed £18m cocaine smuggling mission, was so confident in its success that he went on a surfing holiday in Newquay as the plot took place
Border Force Officers spotted a Rigid Hulled Inflatable Boat (RHIB) on the horizon last September before chasing and arresting three of Fowlie’s associates
In a separate voice message, Fowlie can be heard saying: ‘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 (rigid inflatable boats), as soon as it’s ashore, they load it up and take it away.’
Such was Fowlie’s confidence in the original cocaine smuggling plan, he even enjoyed a surfing holiday with his partner in nearby Newquay while the drop-off was taking place.
Pictures posted to his Facebook show him posing with a surfboard on the north Cornwall beach, wearing a wetsuit and beaming widely.
He was later arrested in December 2024, three months after the cocky voice message.
National Crime Agency officers pored over CCTV footage from the harbour which showed ‘suspicious-looking’ meeting between gang member Peter Williams and others, inspecting boats.
Scott Johnston, 39, Williams, 43, and Spanish speaking Edwin Tabora Baca, 33, had been spotted off the coast by a Border Force vessel and were arrested on the beach after a high speed chase around the coast of Cornwall as they tried to run from the scene.
Truro Crown Court heard the conspirators had been due to collect 20 bales of cocaine from the sea after being dropped there by a cargo ship.
Truro Crown Court heard that seven conspirators organised a collection of 20 bales of cocaine from the sea after they had been dropped there by a cargo ship (pictured, clockwise from top left: Fowlie, Terry Willis, Scott Johnston, Michael May, Bobbie Pearce and Peter Williams)
Pictured: Spanish-speaking Edwin Yahir Tabora Baca, who joined Johnston and Williams in trying to outrun Border Force officers, was the seventh member of the group
National Crime Agency officers pored over CCTV footage from the harbour including this clip which showed Williams and Johnston inspecting boats
The bales were fitted with GPS tracking devices attached to Apple air tags so that they could be recovered from the sea by the smaller vessel and transported to mainland Cornwall to be offloaded and transported elsewhere in the country.
But despite the technology the three men on the boat only managed to find eleven bales but dumped them during the chase.
Six large containers containing around 230kg of ‘high-purity cocaine’ were later recovered from the ocean by Border Force officers and the men were arrested.
The other conspirators were arrested at later times after National Crime Agency investigators trawled through CCTV footage, phone call data and phone messages.
Fowlie, of Chichester; Bobbie Pearce, 29, of Brentwood, Essex; Michael May, 47, also of Kelveden Hatch, Essex; and Terry Willis, 44, of Chelmsford, Essex, helped plan and organise the cocaine smuggling operation and pick up.
May and Jonhston, of Havant, Hants, had denied the charge but were convicted after a trial at Truro Crown Court in June.
The other men admitted conspiracy to import Class A drugs. Willis also admitted money laundering and possessing a revolver and live ammo which were found in a rucksack in his bedroom cupboard.
Tabora Baca – who claimed to be a tourist who had accepted a boat invitation from two strangers to go fishing – was the Spanish speaking link between the higher figures in the operation and had flown into the country on several occasions.
The boat filled with £18m worth of cocaine crashed into a beach after three men were chased for 28 miles at sea (pictured)
The three men onboard the boat were caught by Border Force officers who chased them on foot
Six large containers containing around 230kg of ‘high-purity cocaine’ were recovered from the ocean (pictured)
But messages on his phone discussed the group’s plans and shared a photo of the cocaine on the vessel.
Johnston played a significant role as he piloted the RHIB and helped dump the cocaine during the pursuit.
The other three men involved in the conspiracy – Pearce, Fowlie and Williams – will be sentenced later.
Sentencing four of the men, Judge Jame Adkin said: ‘This was an international conspiracy to smuggle a large quantity of cocaine into the UK via a smuggling operation into the South West.’
The judge said two organised crime groups were involved – one in the South West involving the boat and retrieval of the drugs from the sea – and the other in Essex where the cocaine would have been taken to be cut, divided and sold on to street dealers.
Tabora Baca was jailed for 17 years and seven months and will be deported, Johnston was jailed for 24 years, Willis for 21 years and 8 months which included five years for the firearm offence, and May was jailed for 19 years.
