A Briton caught on board a luxury yacht while allegedly trying to smuggle £160million worth of cocaine into the UK has been named as Andrew Cole.
The 32-year-old, from Stockton-on-Tees, in County Durham, will appear at Plymouth Magistrates' Court on Monday alongside Nicaraguan nationals Billy Downs, 49, Denson White-Morales, 34, Edwin Taylor-Morgan, 40, Brynie Sjogreen, 38 and Ryan Taylor, 42.
The six men have been charged with a string of drug trafficking offences after a raid on their Jamaican-flagged yacht just north of Guernsey on Thursday evening unearthed more than two tons of cocaine.
The crew had left Barbados in the Caribbean some 18 days prior before being intercepted by specialist officers from Border Force and the National Crime Agency (NCA).
The highly-skilled officers boarded the yacht in international waters after it was covertly identified by Border Force Maritime Command's 42-metre cutter, Searcher, and its 19-metre coastal patrol vessel, Alert.
British suspect Andrew Cole, 32, (pictured), from Stockton on Tees, County Durham, was one of six men to be arrested some 80 miles off the coast of Plymouth on Thursday evening in a £120-million cocaine bust
The six men made the roughly 4,000-mile journey from Barbados to just north of Guernsey while allegedly transporting more than two tons of cocaine
The Jamaican-flagged vessel was carrying more than two tons of cocaine with a street value of around £160million (Pictured: Part of the cocaine haul)
The yacht, named Kahu (pictured), had travelled from the Caribbean and was escorted back to the UK mainland where British police conducted a deep search
The huge cocaine haul (pictured packaged in sports bags), would have 'no doubt been sold on to communities in Britain', the National Crime Agency (NCA) said
The huge drugs haul, which was discovered wrapped in hundreds of sealed packages, would have 'no doubt been sold on to communities in Britain', the NCA said.
The yacht named Kahu - listed for sale for £1.3million in 2018 - had been tracked by
