Two Turkish sailors convicted of smuggling a record £512m worth of cocaine have each been jailed for at least 20 years.

Mumin Sahin and Emin Ozmen were found guilty of smuggling three tonnes of the class A drug, which were discovered inside the MV Hamal tugboat about 100 miles (160km) off the coast of Aberdeen in 2015. It is believed to be the biggest single cocaine haul ever recovered at sea in Europe.

The drugs were found in a secret hold in the Tanzania-registered tugboat. The vessel was sailing from Istanbul to Guyana via Tenerife and then to the North Sea when it was stopped by the Royal Navy frigate HMS Somerset and the Border Force cutter HMC Valiant after a tip-off from French intelligence.

The ship’s captain Sahin, 47, was sentenced to 22 years, while the second captain Ozmen, 51, was given a 20-year term at the high court in Glasgow on Friday.

The judge Lord Kinclaven told the men that the quantity of drugs was “not only significant but massive” and that drug trafficking had a “devastating impact” on people and communities.

The cocaine was found in a secret hold on board the MV Hamal tugboat. Photograph: NCA/PA

He said: “You were involved in a most serious operation of commercial scale involving the transportation of cocaine by ship in an operation which crossed international and indeed intercontinental boundaries.”

Sahin was “not at the top of the drugs tree”, the judge said, but had played an important role in the offence, while Ozmen’s part was “to some extent a lesser one”.

Investigators drilled through a steel plate into a secret compartment to find 128 bales of cocaine weighing 3.2 tonnes in total, which took nearly three days to remove. The entrance was found under a wardrobe with the opening cemented over – one of the most intricate concealments the Border Force has ever encountered.

Sahin and Ozmen were found guilty of being concerned with the carrying and concealing of cocaine on the ship between 20 February and 23 April last year, and of being concerned in the supply of cocaine between 21 April and 23 April.

Some of the cocaine being removed from the boat, which was intercepted about 100 miles east of Aberdeenshire. Photograph: NCA/PA

The men, both first offenders who had worked in the shipping industry since leaving school, continue to maintain their innocence. Charges against four other men were found not proven.

Sahin’s lawyer, Jonathan Crowe, said the married father of two was a “glorified mule … someone who was involved in the transportation of the drugs. Someone who was able to captain a boat. In regard to the drugs hierarchy, Mr Sahin is certainly not at the top of the drugs tree but somewhere further down.”

Crowe said his client was devastated about missing out on milestones for his daughter, nine, and son, 13, and “just wants to go home to Turkey”. Neither man has seen their family since being taken into custody in April 2015, as their relatives have struggled to get visa approval.

The crown agent David Harvie said the Crown Office had worked with authorities in Guyana, Spain, Denmark, Norway and the US to piece together crucial evidence. “Scotland’s reach in pursuing criminals is on a truly global scale and in this case we have dealt a substantial economic blow to organised criminals,” he added.

Despite strong intelligence that the Hamal was carrying a large volume of drugs, it could not be boarded in international waters by the UK authorities without the permission of the Tanzanian government, something it had never previously granted.



The Crown Prosecution Service said there was a high risk that the vessel could have escaped but for its criminal justice adviser in Tanzania securing boarding permission within 24 hours.

John McGowan, senior investigating officer at the National Crime Agency, said: “Today’s sentencing is the culmination of a truly international investigation into a seizure that was unprecedented in its scale for Scotland, the UK and Europe.

“Although the final destination for this haul of drugs is likely to have been mainland Europe, there is no doubt in my mind that some of it would have ended up on the streets of the UK, fuelling further criminality.

“By making this seizure and putting these men behind bars, not only have we protected the public but we have also caused major disruption to an international organised criminal network.”