Two drug smugglers try to cross North Sea on jet ski

Two drug dealers tried to cross the North Sea on a jet ski from the Netherlands to smuggle cocaine worth $278,000 to the United Kingdom.   

According to the details, Steven Brogan, 36, and Anthony Reilly, 34, were attempting to cross the North Sea on a jet sky with a bag full of cocaine but the smugglers ran into difficulty when they ran out of fuel.

The smugglers were arrested about 27 nautical miles off the Suffolk coast last September, after approaching a survey boat and “reporting difficulties due to a fuel shortage,” it has been reported.

“At one point they were pitched into the sea,” prosecutor Hugo Vass told the court, adding that one of the men was showing signs of hypothermia and the other of exhaustion, the BBC reported.

The report said that survey vessel put out a mayday call and a Coast Guard helicopter rushed to the scene and pulled the pair to safety. But the chopper’s crew alerted authorities that the men were acting suspicious on board, Vass said.

In order to trick the authorities, Brogan claimed that he had been “fishing… but ran into difficulty” — before investigators discovered 4.4 pounds of coke stuffed in a backpack the pair had on them.

Officers also found a van owned by Brogan with maps of the North Sea, a pick-up point in the Netherlands, tide timetables, a cellphone and diving equipment.

On Tuesday, a judge in Ipswich Crown Court ordered Brogan jailed for seven years and six months and Reilly, who admitted to the charges before his co-defendant, jailed for seven years.