A Royal Navy sailor accused of returning from a mission to counter the drugs trade in South America with 12kg of cocaine in her locker was part of a major smuggling operation, a court was told today.
Teresa Matos, a junior rating, is alleged to have smuggled the drug on board HMS Manchester, where they were found by Customs officers when the Type 42 Destroyer docked in Plymouth on August 10.
The hearing at Plymouth Magistrates’ Court was told that the cocaine was sown into vests and concealed in the lining of backpacks.
Ms Matos, 36, who appeared via video link from Eastwood Park prison in Gloucester, spoke only to confirm her name and did not enter a plea. She is charged with possession of cocaine and was held on remand for her next appearance on September 15.
The court was told that Ms Matos, who came to Britain from Angola as a refugee five years ago, joined the Navy in 2007 and had an “unblemished record”.
Tom Holden, prosecuting for the Serious Organised Crime Agency, said: “This is a quantity indicative of a large criminal enterprise involving many people. This is a large amount of drugs and, if found guilty, the defendant will face a very lengthy prison sentence.”
He added: “Taking into account HMS Manchester visited Colombia during its last voyage before entering Plymouth, it seems this is part of an international drug-smuggling operation.
“Mobile phone records will need to be checked, e-mails will need to be trawled through and the drugs also need to be tested for their purity before we know the true scale of this.”
HMS Manchester has spent the past seven months in the Atlantic, South Pacific and Caribbean. A report published on the ship’s website said: “HMS Manchester set sail on her Atlantic Patrol Tasking in late January, heading first to Cape Verde for counter-narcotics training with the island’s Coast Guard.”
She also visited the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and Cartagena in Colombia.
The website added: “The UK contributes significantly to the counter-narcotics strategy in the region and regularly seizes cocaine bound for the US and Europe.”
A Serious Organised Crime Agency spokeswoman said after the hearing that three men from London had also been arrested.
“Following a search aboard HMS Manchester, a junior rating was discovered to be in possession of a suspected quantity of Class A drugs.
“She was arrested by Royal Navy police on August 10 and handed over to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs in Plymouth during a planned anchorage.
“The investigation was subsequently handed to the Serious Organised Crime Agency, who arrested three civilians from the London area on Wednesday August 12. The junior rating and the three men were charged with the importation of controlled drugs.”
The spokeswoman confirmed that three men appeared in court in Portsmouth last week and were remanded in custody.
A Royal Navy spokeswoman said: “The Ministry of Defence will co-operate fully with any investigation that involves service personnel. The Royal Navy demands the highest standard of conduct from our personnel and anyone who falls short of that is dealt with robustly.”
Ms Matos, who lives in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, came to Britain with her sister in 2001 and studied English at college before being granted British citizenship in 2006.
The Royal Navy website says that she helped to renovate houses for abandoned children in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, halfway through the ship’s seven-month voyage.
She is quoted as saying: “I really enjoyed the experience and I am looking forward to doing some similar charity work throughout the rest of HMS Manchester’s deployment.”
