Swansea man jailed 11 years over yacht cocaine plot

A Swansea man who was part of a criminal gang planning to smuggle 600 kilos of cocaine on a yacht during a transatlantic sailing race has been jailed for 11 years.

Karl Richter, 52, from Fourth Avenue, Clase, appeared via video link at Chelmsford Crown Court where he was sentenced for drugs offences including importing cannabis from South Africa and supplying cocaine.

The court heard that Richter was involved with an organised criminal group which spent two years plotting to sail a vessel loaded with cocaine from St Lucia to Lagos, Portugal, during an annual sailing race. The gang, led by Lee McClenaghan, 57, from Chelmsford, and Lea Talbot, 55, from Chadwell St Mary, Essex, had organised the crime with a Venezuelan drug cartel boss.

When the race was cancelled in May 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the gang turned to smuggling cannabis from Canada and South Africa, as well as exploring multi-tonne quantities of cocaine from South America.

On 1 March 2022, officers at Tilbury Port, Essex uncovered 408 kilos of cannabis hidden inside a “precision machine lathe” in a large plywood crate from South Africa. When officers separated the base, they found 408 silver wrapped packages in 1kg parcels.

Cameron Brown KC, prosecuting, said that Richter was a “very important link in the chain” between other gang members and the South African importer, proven through “patterns of phone calls and meetings”.

Richter was also sentenced for conspiracy to supply 40kg of cocaine with a separate group. In July 2023, he drove a Mercedes van from Swansea to Coventry where officers later found a box containing 7kg of cocaine which was 85-87% purity, with a value of £189,000.

Following his arrest, a search of Richter’s property found £4,000 in cash, various mobile phones, and Class A and B drugs totalling £7,176, including nasal spray bottles containing cocaine worth £6,720.

Judge Jamie Sawyer said Richter was part of a “sophisticated and well planned attempt” to import significant amounts of cannabis and was a “crucial link” between the UK and South African operations, adding that he “must have had some awareness of the scale of the operation”.

The judge noted Richter “had made good use of his time in custody” but had to consider aggravating factors “given the volume of drugs involved” and Richter’s four previous convictions, including for drug offending.

Richter was sentenced to eight years and three months for conspiracy to supply cocaine, plus two years and nine months for conspiracy to evade the prohibition on the importation of cannabis, to run consecutively. He will serve up to 40% of his sentence in custody with the remainder on licence.