'Cocaine Queen of Caribbean' jailed for £90m smuggling plot

A yachtswoman was jailed for 24 years yesterday for helping to smuggle a record £90m cocaine consignment into a remote cove on the Isle of Wight.

Julie Patterson, 46, who was born in Norfolk but ran a successful boat charter business on the Caribbean island of Antigua, prepared a 37ft yacht for a 3,500-mile journey to Britain. Customs officers arrested Patterson, who was nicknamed the "Cocaine Queen of the Caribbean", and her associates after they met the yacht and spent the night lugging bales of cocaine along a cliff-top path in October 2000.

Patterson's partner in the operation, Michael Tyrrell, a 55-year-old Antiguan with convictions for drug offences, had been sentenced to 26 years at an earlier hearing. A third member of the gang, Frederic Fillingham, 42, a US national from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was given 18 years.

Judge Timothy King told Patterson and Fillingham: "Those that involve themselves in the trafficking of hard and dangerous drugs are purveyors of misery, degradation and even death to those that become addicted. In these courts we have seen cases in which lives were decimated, blighted and shattered, and in all too many cases ruined by drug addiction.

"You and others like you have much to answer for. Drug abuse is a scourge in a decent and civilised society, and costs civilised society many billions of pounds."

Earlier, a jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court in London heard that the drug-smuggling operation had been meticulously planned but went wrong as the yacht reached Britain. In poor weather, the gang tried to land the 396kg (873lb) of cocaine, but the outboard motor on their inflatable dinghy broke down and they had to dump the drugs on a beach half a mile from where they had planned. The gang had hoped to bring the drugs ashore at Orchard Bay, a seafront complex that Tyrrell had bought for £657,000. The bay had a private beach and was next door to the Isle of Wight's smuggling museum.

But Customs learnt of the plan, and Tyrrell and Patterson were kept under close surveillance for three months. After the disastrous landing, the gang carried six of the 20 cocaine bales along the coastal path. With dawn approaching, Tyrrell tried to collect the rest by van but was arrested by watching Customs officers.

The judge dismissed claims that Patterson had been duped and said she commanded "considerable influence and authority" over the operation.