Cruise Ship Drug Busts Continue
Final gang member receives 12 yrs of jail time in England
By Mike Groves
In 2008, four Britons were arrested disembarking a cruise ship with over $3 million pounds of cocaine strapped to their bodies and which obviously caused them to stand out a little from the other guests - a tadge! These gang members were eventually sentenced to 10 years for bringing 44 pounds of cocaine into the United Kingdom while sailing aboard P&O’s ship the Arcadia.
As with most crimes you always have a ‘getaway driver’ and in this case it was a male by the name of Claudie Anglin from Birmingham who was discovered ‘twiddling his thumbs’ at Southampton’s Mayflower Cruise Terminal while waiting for his four colleagues; three women and one male to come through the arrivals terminal. Sadly for him they would never arrive and Anglin was met by customs officials instead.
However back to our current story and which originally took place on 19 October 2008. Anglin's fellow gang members were sentenced for their part at Southampton Crown Court in December 2008, so I am pretty confidant they must have all pleaded guilty for sentencing to occur that quickly. I would imagine Anglin had obviously been arguing the point during his own defense until finally admitting his own guilt in July 2009. It looks like things didn’t quite work out as he planned, receiving another two years for his trouble!
The gang had been involved in the movement of cocaine worth £1.7m from St Lucia while on their 23-day cruise around the Caribbean. How the other half live err, but now this bunch of scurvy smugglers have moved from the delights of fine dinning and spacious rooms to the standard ten by ten foot cell. No caviar and Champers in abundance there!
Class A –
Heron (H, Horse, Scag, Smack, Stuff and Brown)
LSD (Acid)
Crack (Rock, Blow, Glass)
Ecstasy (XTC, Fantasy, Adam)
Cocaine (Coke)
ICE 
(the relatively new killer on the market!)
(the relatively new killer on the market!) Class B –
Marijuana/Cannabis (also known as Hash, Pot, Wacky Baccy, Ganja and Dope)
Hashish (all known as - Hash, Pot, Wacky Baccy, Ganja, Hash Oil, Dope & Blow)
Amphetamines (Whiz, Amph)
Class C –
Mild amphetamines, anabolic steroids and minor tranquilisers
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Proof that crime does not pay!
The police always get ‘Their Man’
By Mike Groves QGM
Cruise Bruise Security And Safety Advisor
August, 17 2010
In recent years there have been a number of well documented drugs seizures. Recently the USCG Cutter Sitkinak intercepted a suspicious boat during one of their routine patrols and recovered a rather lovely bounty of marijuana.
In May the Coast Guard stuck again when they seized almost 800 pounds of Marijuana this time from a 20-foot vessel traveling from the Bahamas.
And members of the Dutch military also scored a hit when they seized 3,000 kg of marijuana from a cruise ship sailing in the North Sea only a couple of months ago. But one month before that, 1.32 tonnes of cocaine was seized from a Panamanian-flagged vessel off the Dutch Antilles islands. The Dutch frigate Van Speijk discovered the cocaine wrapped in 66 individual bags and which came a day after the French also made a record 100 million dollar bust in the region. Its all good!
Anglin looking slightly depressed?
What makes me chuckle about this crime; yes I did chuckle, its an old police habit you see and is solely focused towards the level of stupidity that some criminals continue to possess? It still amazes me to this day. What made me smile is that this gang of young men and women booked a cruise with a ship full of passengers of retirement age!
The old saying of Prior Planing and Preparation Prevents Poor Performance is clearly evident here, or rather was lacking in this case.
Some of the drugs recovered
