By Staff Reporter
Defendant Peter Williams, a Cornish fisherman once met King Charles at a community event
Two more members of a crime group behind a dramatic 28-mile at-sea chase have been jailed, bringing the total sentences for the gang to more than a century behind bars.
Peter Williams, 44, of Havant, and Bobbie Pearce, 29, of Brentwood, were sentenced yesterday at Kingston Crown Court to 16 years and nine months and 15 years and four months respectively.
Williams, once a well-regarded fisherman who had even met King Charles during a community engagement, was described in court as a man who had spiralled into crime following personal tragedy and mounting debts. Pearce, the court heard, was recruited to crew the small vessel used to collect drugs off the Cornish coast.
Their downfall came on 13 September 2024, when Border Force officers spotted a rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) collecting cargo from a suspected “mother ship” in the English Channel. When challenged, the RHIB sped away, sparking a 28-mile pursuit through rough seas. During the chase, crew members desperately hurled six bales into the water before the boat ran aground on Gwynver Beach, near Penzance.
were previously arrested by Border Force officers in Operation Libellary
The men fled on foot but were quickly tackled and arrested by Border Force officers. The six packages—around 230kg of high-purity cocaine—were later recovered from the sea, with a street value of £18.4 million.
Earlier this month, four of their accomplices were jailed for a combined 82 years, including ringleaders Scott Johnston and Terry Willis. A final conspirator, Alex Fowlie, 35, of Chichester, who purchased the RHIB, is due to be sentenced in September.
The case, codenamed Operation Libellary, highlighted the rising use of “at-sea drop-offs” (Asdos), a smuggling method in which traffickers drop GPS-tagged packages into the sea for collection by small boats. Law enforcement agencies have warned that increasingly sophisticated methods—including purpose-built “narco-submarines”—could be the next step.
Barry Reylolds of the National Crime Agency said the operation had prevented millions of pounds’ worth of drugs from reaching UK streets.
> “Cocaine is one of the most harmful illegal drugs in the UK, linked to thousands of deaths and fuelling violent crime that wrecks communities and lives.
“Working together, Border Force stopped cocaine worth millions from making it onto UK streets and the National Crime Agency ensured that the group behind its importation faced justice.”
With more than 100 years of jail time now secured against the network, authorities are urging coastal communities to remain vigilant under Project Kraken, a scheme designed to enlist the public’s help in spotting suspicious activity at sea.
For Williams, once a pillar of his seaside community, the fall from grace was particularly stark. The judge told him: “You knew what you were doing, and you knew the risks. You chose greed and desperation over the law, and you will now face the consequences.”
