A Brit has been fined £60million and jailed for five years after 1.5 tonnes of cocaine were found on his yacht.
Spanish customs caught James McNaught, 43, with 61 bales of coke 200 miles off the Canary Islands.
He was sentenced in Madrid ahead of his trial following a confession and plea bargain.
The Spanish air force helped find McNaught’s 40ft yacht Pepper Sauce as it sailed to the Spanish mainland in June 2018.
Police, who had tracked McNaught for three years, said drugs were transferred between boats at sea.
Father-of-one McNaught moved to Spain as a teenager after growing up in Newquay, Cornwall.
His sister Linda Johnson said when he was arrested: “I have no sympathy for people that want something for nothing.”
A Spanish police spokesman said after the cocaine seizure 200 miles off the Canaries "the modus operandi consisted of transferring the drugs directly into Spanish ports hidden in special compartments, or moving them to other boats at high sea which then brought the drugs into the country.
“The drugs were then stored in safe houses until they could be distributed via the black market.
“Britain’s National Crime Agency co-operated in this operation.
“Initially it was suspected the drugs were being transported on a vessel which had taken charge of the drugs off the coast of Suriname in South America.
“The investigation subsequently determined they had been transferred to a yacht whose name was not known initially but was some 300 miles off the Canary Islands and was heading towards the Spanish mainland.
“The 40-foot yacht the drugs were found on was located with the help of the Spanish Air Force after Spanish Customs and Excise vessel Petrel I was relocated to the area.”
