A powerful drug lord nicknamed The Professor who allegedly smuggled billions of pounds worth of cocaine from Latin America to Europe in yachts across the Atlantic is on the run.
The eccentric criminal mastermind is being sought by Spanish and British police who said they smashed the world’s largest cocaine smuggling sailboat operation.
“Damon Hill” and “Jeremy Clarkson” were used as nicknames by gang members who made so much money, they “decorated” a lavatory with piles of €50 notes.
It was reported guns were encrusted with diamonds; a Ferrari featured the insignia of the Colombian police and homes were filled with gold busts of gang leaders.
One of the alleged gang members was Conor Cowan, 30, a fisherman from the Isle of Lewis, The Telegraph can reveal.
Mr Cowan was arrested by the French navy, which seized 1.2 tons of cocaine with a street value of £96 million when sailors boarded a Spanish-registered yacht 1,200 miles east of Martinique in the Caribbean in December.
The Professor, who was born in Iran but has Norwegian nationality, oversaw the drugs empire from a luxury villa in Denia on Spain’s Costa Blanca.
To hide his real vocation, the 50-year-old pretended to teach Norwegian to locals but never gave a class, Spanish police said.
Over 20 years, he won the confidence of the Mexican and Colombian drug cartels, police said, and worked with a British crime group based in Marbella to ship drugs in yachts from Latin America to Spain and on to the UK.
His British partners ran a fleet of yachts based in southern Spain but The Professor made the final decision when shipments would be made.
Before each yacht sailed, The Professor consulted a santero, a witch doctor derived from Latin American and African religion.
In December, the mystic’s judgment proved disastrously wrong when police boarded the yacht in the Caribbean.
Ten Britons were among 52 people arrested by the end of a three-year international operation in June.
But The Professor fled from Spain a few days before the arrests and was still at large, police said.
Mr Cowan, who is facing charges for alleged drug smuggling in Spain and is awaiting trial, was confirmed as the British skipper was arrested in December, police sources said.
Described as a “mild-mannered boy” by those who knew him in Lewis, he would regularly post images on social media of sea views around the Western Isles, a springer spaniel called Luna and show off hauls of prawns.
“He was raised by granny and was really devoted to her until she passed away,” one person who knows Mr Cowan said.
“He was a really nice, decent boy, very polite. He barely drank and wasn’t much of a partier, he just went fishing.
“It’s a real shock. He’s the last person you would have expected to have become mixed up in something like this.”
Mr Cowan comes from a seafaring family, a decade ago posting a grainy black and white picture to his Instagram account of his grandfather on an expedition to South Georgia in the Southern Atlantic.
He claimed his ancestor was the first to bring penguins back to Britain.
Locals admitted there had been widespread speculation within the tight-knit community about how a Lewis native, whose birth was registered in Stornoway in 1994, had allegedly found himself at the centre of a major international drug smuggling ring.
“There was a lot of talk about it when he was arrested,” another islander said.
The Spanish detective who led the operation told The Telegraph: “The operation is a success of international co-operation because we have managed to dismantle the biggest drug sailing fleet in the world.
“This gang must have transported billions of pounds worth of cocaine over the years. We can never know how much. Each sailing boat carried about €20 million (£17 million) in cocaine.”
The officer, who did not want to be identified for security reasons, said: “The Professor deeply believed in the witch doctor and he made a decision on each embarkation based on what they said.”
The British men organised the fleet of yachts and were “top tier” members of the gang, the Spanish officer said.
The British women occupied a lower level, allegedly working as treasurers to launder drug money in Marbella and beyond. They bought a restaurant and a hotel in the upmarket resort.
The skipper of the yacht boarded in the Caribbean was a 30-year-old man from Stornoway.
Three of the women were from Boston, Lincs, aged 19, 38 and 28, who were living in Marbella when they were arrested.
A 54-year-old woman from Chelmsford, Essex, and a 49-year-old woman from Nottingham were also detained along with a 63-year-old man from East Yorkshire and a 24-year-old British man.
A 37-year-old man from Bracknell, Berks, who was living in Portugal and a 34-year-old Scottish man was detained.
All are being held in Spain pending trial. None have been charged.
Spanish police released a video showing officers raiding the sumptuous villa in Marbella, which they say is owned by one of the Britons arrested in the operation.
Inside, police found a lavatory which was covered with piles of €50 notes as the drug dealers did not know what to do with the loot.
In 2020, intelligence from the National Crime Agency identified a British crime group based in Spain who were trafficking cocaine across the Atlantic.
Yachts sailed from Valencia, Malaga and Alicante to Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Lucia, Barbados and Panama. They made the return journey laden with cocaine
Neil Keeping, National Crime Agency regional manager in Spain, said: “This Spanish-led international operation has dismantled a major drug trafficking crime group and resulted in the arrests of 10 British nationals.
“A portion of the class A drugs seized would have undoubtedly been destined for the UK where its supply at street levels fuels violence and exploitation and brings misery to our communities.”
More than 15 Norwegians including a “reconverted bank robber” were held as part of the police operation.
Around 1.5 tons of cocaine in all, eight boats, 36 vehicles and more than 85 mobile phones were seized.
