-Caveat Lector-
-----Original Message----- From: Vigilius Haufniensis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wed, 27 Feb 2008 8:25 pm Subject: [cia-drugs] Cocaine galore! £7m of Colombia's finest washes up on Cornish beaches http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/feb/28/drugsandalcohol Cocaine galore! £7m of Colombia's finest washes up on Cornish beaches · Suitcase sized packages worth £1m each · Theory that they have floated from Caribbean Frank Partridge is partial to a spot of beachcombing. He likes to pop down to Pentreath Beach on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall and find out what odds and ends have been washed in by the tide. But rather than the usual hunks of weather-beaten wood and pieces of broken lobster pot, Partridge's latest expedition yielded a rather more valuable haul - a package of cocaine with a street value of more than £1m. As a law-abiding citizen - and clerk of the local parish council - Partridge knew he had to had to prevent the drugs from falling into the wrong hands. "I thought if I didn't take it, someone who might not go to the police would." So he dragged the 25kg (55lb) package off the beach and rolled it home in a wheelbarrow." Such events have become almost routine in Cornwall. Within the last three weeks five similar hauls - more than £6m worth - have been discovered on the county's beaches. Another big haul, worth more than £1.5m, washed up on a beach in north Wales and a single package, worth a mere £100,000 or so, was found in south Wales. Devon and Cornwall police are working with Interpol and other global agencies to try to find out how the drugs are ending up on British beaches. The origin does not take much detective work; some of the packages are marked "Colombia" in faded writing. But how they ended up in the sea remains a puzzle. The age of the packages, and the presence of warm water-loving barnacles suggests they may be floating all the way across the Atlantic from the Caribbean. One theory is that smugglers dumped the cocaine overboard as they were pursued by American or British anti-drug patrols. Police are worried that other packages may be heading to the UK, or may have already arrived, and could fall into the hands of people less scrupulous than Partridge. Patrols have been stepped up on beaches and customs and coastguard officers have been asked to keep an eye out, but 500 miles of Devon and Cornwall coastline is a challenge to police. They are also concerned that the cocaine in the packages is particularly pure and so could harm an innocent person if they accidentally consumed it. The first of the packages washed up in Bude, north-east Cornwall, at the start of the month. A few days later a wildlife researcher, James Saulino, came across packages of drugs at Kynance Cove, on the Lizard in the south of the county, while he was carrying out a study of porpoises. The drugs, in a package about the size of a suitcase, were wrapped in sacking and then layers of plastic. Saulino realised he was looking at something worth more than £1m and called the police. "As I sat there alone waiting for the police, I was waiting for a little mini-sub to surface and two guys with machine guns," he said. "I think it's the strong south-westerlies. This cocaine has come a long way. It's incredible. I always thought the day would come when we would find something extraordinary but I expected an exotic crustacean or turtle, not millions of pounds of cocaine." Last Saturday another package was found near Portscatho, also on the south coast but further east. And on Sunday a package was dragged up in the nets of a fishing trawler in Mount's Bay in the far west of Cornwall. The fishermen handed it over to the Penlee lifeboat crew, who passed it on to the police. Then on Monday Partridge, 57, set off for the beach with his two dogs, Tyla and Bessie. "I often comb the tideline if I have time," he said. "When I saw the package I knew what it was immediately - it was tied up in thick rope, with hessian layers underneath. "Luckily I'm one of the good guys, but you wonder how many of these packages might have turned up and not been reported. "I phoned the police straight away. They sent down a WPC who immediately said: 'Can you keep this quiet?' I think they're a bit worried about attracting undesirables in a new Klondike situation. "I told them I'd try but we're a tiny little village down here and it's difficult to keep anything that quiet." The police have yet to confirm that the latest three packages do contain cocaine - but Detective Inspector Martin Warren, of the force's serious and organised crime team, said they almost certainly did. Another Lizard local, Tony Muller, 65, who saw the package, said: "It's like a film script really. The package would be worth around a million and half pounds I'm told, and it must belong to a very angry man in Colombia." __._,_.___ Complete archives at http://www.sitbot.net/ Please let us stay on topic and be civil. OM Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe __,_._,___ www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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