Superyacht seized with cocaine worth £160m to be sold at auction

The MY Kahu was intercepted 80 miles south of Plymouth last year, and goes on sale Wednesday

A superyacht seized from drug smugglers who were attempting to bring £160m worth of cocaine to the UK will be sold on behalf of the government in an online auction this week.

Acting on a tipoff, Border Force and National Crime Agency officers intercepted and boarded the 120ft (37-metre) yacht in international waters near Guernsey last year. They discovered more than two tonnes of cocaine stuffed inside the boat.

The MY Kahu was seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act (Poca), and will on Wednesday be put up for auction, minus the cocaine, with the money used to fund the NCA’s operations.

The yacht, which has a large saloon, galley, five staterooms and accommodation for four crew, is expected to sell for more than one million pounds.

The auctioneer, Mark Woods, said more than 25 parties had registered interest in buying the yacht, and several potential buyers viewed the MY Kahu during an open day in Torquay last week.

Woods said bidders have flown in from Greece, the south of France and even New Zealand. The New Zealand family are particularly interested in acquiring the MY Kahu, he said, because it was built in 1979 for the Royal New Zealand Navy.

“It’s so rare that something like MY Kahu comes up for auction and she’s a wonderful vessel, so we look forward to seeing her in the hands of the highest bidder and being able to send the proceeds of sale to the government,” said Woods, government contracts manager at Wilsons Auctions.

Woods, who specialises in selling confiscated assets, said the yacht was one of the most interesting items seized by the government under the Proceeds of Crime Act that he has sold.

“We have sold all sorts of things seized under the act. This isn’t our first boat, but it’s one of the biggest,” he said. “We’ve also sold planes, gold bullion, high value jewellery and watches, cryptocurrency and even an Olympic gold medal-winning horse. Then there are the cars – Rolls-Royces, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Bentleys.

“You never know what you are going to be instructed to manage with seized assets and it really captures the imagination of the public when it comes to the auction. It’s quite the story.”

Woods said the boat was in good condition, despite being raided and extensively searched by Border Force officers. “She went through a thorough search process when originally seized. However, after carrying out works, she is now well presented and ready for auction.”

The yacht left Barbados in August 2021 and sailed across the Atlantic. It was intercepted 80 miles south of Plymouth by specialist officers from Border Force and the NCA, who raided the vessel.

Cocaine with an estimated street value of £160m was discovered wrapped in hundreds of sealed packages distributed carefully across the vessel to avoid the weight leading the boat to list. At the time of the seizure, the NCA said the cocaine would have “no doubt been sold on to communities in Britain”.

Four men charged with drug smuggling in relation to the haul were cleared after a trial last month. The Crown Prosecution Service dropped a similar charge against a fifth defendant.Advertisement

Andrew Cole, 33, of Norton Road, Stockton-on-Tees, has pleaded guilty to drug smuggling. He will be sentenced on 26 May.

Bidding on the yacht starts at 3pm on 27 April, and closes at 3pm on 28 April.

The Proceeds of Crime Act – which has been called the Al Capone act after the US gangster – was introduced into law in 2003 by then home secretary David Blunkett. He said it would target criminal “parasites” with “flashy” lifestyles and he hoped it would recover up to £60m a year. “We are hitting organised criminals where it really hurts, in their pockets,” he said.

Under the act, £219m was recovered in the 2020-21 financial year, the latest available, according to Home Office figures.

Earlier this year, a court heard that 15 gold bars were seized from a woman passing through Heathrow as she changed planes on the way to India. She was stopped by Border Force officers who spotted that she was trying to carry £650,000-worth of gold, weighing 15kg (33lb), in her hand luggage.

Following a two-day hearing, the bullion was passed to the National Crime Agency under the act. The unnamed woman, who was allowed to continue her journey without the gold, claimed she was moving the bars for jewellers. But invoices she provided were fake.

In 2015, the government recovered almost £1.2m by selling the seized supercar collection of a crime lord dubbed “Don Car-leone’. Alexander Surin, a fugitive living in Dubai, had three Ferraris and a Rolls-Royce seized under the act.

The cars – a Ferrari Enzo, Ferrari 599 GTB, Ferrari California and the Rolls-Royce Phantom – were sold at luxury auction house Bonhams, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, for a total of £1,189,840.

The Enzo, named after Ferrari’s founder and one of just 400 ever built, sold for £897,500. It was believed to be the most expensive car ever seized and sold at a UK auction.

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