A yacht that belonged to a Liverpool man who was at the centre of a £60m drug plot is to be sold by an auction house.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) seized the Nori yacht after its owner Gary Swift was implicated in a £60m drug plot.
Swift, from the Huyton area, was arrested when police stormed the drug laden SY Atrevido during the early hours of December 2017 off the coast of Wales.
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The NCA and Border Force officers found a haul of high purity cocaine onboard with a street value of around £60m.
Upon arrest, Swift said to officers: “I just want to say that I am guilty. I have got something substantial on the boat and they will find it.”
The NCA then began seizing assets which belonged to Swift, including the Nori which was moored in the Albert Dock.
The ECHO can now reveal the Nori is set to be sold by a well known auction house. A spokesperson for the NCA said Wilsons Auctions had been instructed to sell the boat.
Wilsons, one of the UK's largest independent auction houses, has a specialist assets recovery department which represents police forces and law enforcement organisations across the UK.
A former acquaintance of Swift recently told the ECHO the Huyton man used to live on the Nori.
She said: "Yes he used to live on the Nori in Albert Dock. Gary must have been fairly good with yachts because he managed to sail across the Atlantic twice."
Swift and his associate Scott Kilgour were initially placed under heavy surveillance by the NCA after they took part in a dummy run across the Atlantic in another of Swift's yachts called the Mistral.
The two Huyton men encountered heavy weather and had to be towed to safety. Police spotted suspicious-looking anti-surveillance equipment on board the vessel.
Police stormed the SY Atrevido, a third yacht owned by Swift, at around 2.38am on August 27 2019.
The vessel, which had sailed from South America, was escorted into Fishguard port where NCA officers and Border Force’s Deep Rummage team conducted a search. The drugs were found in all parts of the vessel.
Upon arrest, Swift said to officers: “I just want to say that I am guilty. I have got something substantial on the boat and they will find it.”
He later admitted “I’m the bad one here,” and asked custody officers to pass a message to the NCA revealing the number of packages on board the yacht.
The drugs had a wholesale value of around £24 million with a potential street value of £60 million.
Swift and Kilgour were later jailed for 19 years 6 months, and 13 years 6 months respectively, after pleading guilty to importing Class A drugs into the UK.
In July last year Swift was handed a confiscation order worth £328,071 at Swansea Crown Court under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
The sale of the Nori and the rest of Swift's assets will be used to settle the confiscation order which was handed to Swift by Judge Paul Thomas, QC.
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