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George King & Harvey Bell
BBC News, East of England
Reporting from Ipswich Crown Court
Two individuals, Bruce Knowles and Ferhat Gumrukguoglu, have been sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court for attempting to import a controlled drug into the UK. Knowles, 56, from Dereham, Norfolk, and Gumrukguoglu, 32, from the Netherlands, were apprehended by the National Crime Agency (NCA) after trying to smuggle £37 million worth of cocaine in an inflatable boat off the Suffolk coast near Benacre Broad on 24 June the previous year. Judge Richard Benson KC sentenced Knowles to 17 years and three months in prison, while Gumrukguoglu received a 15-year sentence, acknowledging the sophisticated nature of their operation.
During the court proceedings, it was revealed that the defendants had conducted a trial run of their drug smuggling operation in April before carrying out the actual plan two months later. Border Force officers intercepted them as they approached Lowestoft on an inflatable boat near the shoreline. Despite the repeated requests to stop, Knowles was captured and arrested by NCA officers, while Gumrukguoglu attempted to flee but was apprehended eight hours later in Beccles after being found wandering barefoot.
Upon inspection of their boat, law enforcement officers found 22 packages containing 350kg of cocaine hidden under a tarpaulin, with a purity rate ranging from 78 to 84%. Investigators believed that Knowles and Gumrukguoglu had met a larger ship at sea between England and France to collect the narcotics before planning to transfer them to a van in Orton Broad for further distribution. Prosecutors argued that the defendants played a significant role in the operation, although the defense claimed there were higher-ranking individuals orchestrating the scheme.
In his sentencing remarks, Judge Benson emphasized the substantial role played by Knowles and Gumrukguoglu in the drug smuggling operation, stating that their actions directly contribute to the availability of cocaine for addicts in the UK. Despite taking into account their previous guilty pleas, the judge noted the importance of imposing significant sentences to deter others from engaging in similar criminal activities
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