Ketamine worth £1.4million seized from fishing boat in Suffolk

National Crime Agency intercepted the fishing vessel, which had allegedly travelled from Amsterdam
National Crime Agency officers
PA Wire
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Ketamine with an estimated street value of £1.4million has been recovered from a fishing boat in Suffolk.

Five men were arrested after National Crime Agency officers intercepted the MFV Girl Carole on the River Deben in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Covert teams watched as two men allegedly offloaded a number of boxes from the vessel into a waiting car at a dock in Ramsholt.

The containers were then taken to a storage unit 10 miles away in Rendlesham.

When investigators searched the warehouse, 200 kilos of the Class B party drug were discovered inside.

An NCA spokesman said the boat is alleged to have travelled from Amsterdam to the UK dock for the purpose of importing drugs.

Investigators worked closely with Dutch partners to monitor the Girl Carole as it left the Netherlands.

A deactivated shotgun was also found on the vessel.

A further amount of cannabis was found at home addresses of two suspects.

Richard Saul, 41, of Woodbridge, Sean Seymour, 58, of Beech Road, Saxmundham, and Domenic Labella, 19, of Beaconsfield Road, Ipswich were charged with being concerned in the importation and supply of controlled drugs.

They appeared at Ipswich Magistrates’ Court on Monday and were bailed until a further hearing at Ipswich Crown Court on March 18.

Two others arrested on the boat were released on bail.

Ty Surgeon, NCA branch commander, said: “The discovery of these drugs is the result of a painstaking and long-running investigation into the trafficking of drugs through international waters into the UK.

“It is another fantastic example of the NCA working with partners, including the Dutch police and prosecutor’s office, to tackle the upstream overseas drugs trade and stop the importation of a huge amount of ketamine we believe was destined for the streets of the UK.

“Anyone who thinks they can smuggle drugs into the UK should know that we will do everything at our disposal to stop your endeavours and protect the public.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in