Bruce Knowles and Ferhat Gumrukguoglu sentenced for drug smuggling after £39m in cocaine seized near Lowestoft
Two men who tried to evade officers by swimming away from a boat containing £39 million worth of cocaine on the Suffolk coast have been jailed.
Bruce Knowles, 56, of Dereham, and Ferhat Gumrukguoglu, 32, from the Netherlands, were sentenced for drug smuggling at Ipswich Crown Court today.
They were convicted of importing a controlled drug, namely 350 kilos of cocaine, in August.
The pair were intercepted on a rigid hulled inflatable boat off the coast of East Benacre Broads, near Lowestoft, on June 24, 2024.
They had been spotted by and failed to stop as the Border Force closed in on their vessel.
Gumrukguoglu then jumped ship and swam towards the beach as Knowles restarted the engine and attempted to flee.
Officers pursued them before the boat was grounded on the beach. Knowles then jumped overboard as they tried to arrest him.
Norfolk and Suffolk Police then chased after Gumrukguoglu, who was arrested later that day in Wrentham.
The pair’s boat was towed to Lowestoft, where officers discovered about 350 kilograms of cocaine, worth an estimated £39 million, hidden under tarpaulin in the hull.
Investigators from the National Crime Agency (NCA) believe they picked the drugs up from French waters before sailing back to the UK.
Knowles will spend 17 years and three months behind bars, while Gumrukguoglu was jailed for 15 years.
Paul Orchard, operations manager for the NCA, said: "This was a fast-moving and dynamic interception of two men attempting to smuggle in a huge quantity of Class A drugs.
"Knowles and Gumrukguoglu continued to try and evade arrest to avoid a significant loss for their crime group. They now face long prison sentences.
"With thanks to our partners in Border Force and the Joint Maritime Security Centre, a significant amount of class A drugs have been removed from the criminal marketplace where further criminality and exploitation would have followed.
"The NCA is committed to protecting the public from serious and organised crime and stopping criminals from fuelling the UK drugs trade."
