£20 Million Drugs Bust on Cornish Surf Beach

Border Force boat chase onto Gwenver (Gwynver) beach and apprehend drug smugglers.
Transcript of caption:
Gwenver Beach Drugs Bust
Friday 13th September 2024
This is Gwenver (or Gwynver) beach in West Cornwall.
Just around the corner from Sennen and about a mile from Land's End.
It's early September, the summer holidays are over and it's a quiet day on the beach.
It's sunny, warm and there's some waves. There's about 10 people surfing, a few people splashing around in the swimming area and more on the beach.
A normal day at the beach...
But things are about to change
Just before 11:00 things take a turn for the James Bond!
Approaching from the left of the screen, travelling at high speed are 2 black boats, seemingly involved in a chase.
The boats are heading straight for the beach and showing no sign of slowing down. I was standing on the beach, and it is at about this point that I noticed them.
My first thoughts are 'this is a military training exercise'. But the speed the boats travel past the surfers and swimmers would make this insanely dangerous!
I was getting changed out of my wetsuit at this time. I had my phone within reach and managed to get a couple of decent photos.
I did consider filming what happened next, but thinking these guys might be special services, I decided I might not leave the beach with my phone if I did.
As soon as the first boat hit the sand the two occupants start running.
Bemused beachgoers looked on whilst others carried on unphased.
To be honest, I think most people (myself included) thought this was a drill.
So, while the guys in both boats launched into a full on chase up the beach, everyone else on the beach watched on with a mixture of confusion and possibly mild alarm.
Now, I happened to be getting changed at the foot of the steps that lead away from the beach. And this is exactly where the chase headed.
From my ringside seat I had a perfect view of two Border Force agents dressed in full tactical gear chasing and shouting after one of the guys from the other boat.
Things actually got pretty unnerving as the chase got closer and closer. I did start scanning the chasee for weapons thinking I might be about to be involved in the most rubbish terrorist attack ever!
At this point I was still fairly sure that this was some kind of training exercise, so carried on getting changed as a large guy with a baseball cap, hotly pursued by two border agents, ran right past me.
Right after this Border Force got their man. I saw him being unceremoniously sat on by the two officers and heard a few snatches of rights being read.
Someone did ask the Border Forces guys if this was a training drill. The response - totally blanked. Then a few minutes later one of the agents actually asked what the name of the beach was.
And that was pretty much it. Nobody on the beach had a clue what had just happened! Was it for real? Was it a drugs bust? Did I imagine it?!
To me, what I had just witnessed seemed pretty insane, and certainly news-worthy. Armed with a couple of half decent photos and frankly riveting story(!), I approached a couple of news/media organisations... the response - tumbleweed!
After a couple of days of trying to find out what I had actually seen unfold I'd all but given up. However, some details have surfaced in the local news....
It turns out this was the real deal. Although there aren't many details, it seems that this boat had been intercepted by Border Force and 300 kilos of cocaine were found!
There isn't any other information as of yet, including where the boat came from, or where it was heading.
I do know the both boats came from the Land's End direction as I have seen footage showing a chase out to sea, across Sennen Beach. How far around the coast they came, I don't know
So, there we go. I watched an epic drugs bust go down at my local beach. If I hadn't seen it I might not believe it happened. As it is, the whole thing was very surreal...

[@John-e5g4d]

This happened in Spain recently, in a packed beach, and when the boat was abandoned by the narcos with the police giving chase the beach goers proceeded to empty the boat of its contents and run also 😂

[@nigelpeers5631]

Used to surf this beach back in the seventies,some great waves.

[@mreribus3851]

they picked the wrong beach for a quick escape those steps up are a nightmare

[@cornwallguide]

Yep, the guy who ran in my direction made it up about 2 steps. I think he basically gave up then.

[@simonfinch9764]

Wow a dingy they actually tried to stop.😉😂

[@emmaearnshaw3282]

Good on you for covering this story and making it short. Please reconsider using music in future beach crime intercepts.

[@trevekneebone369]

Slow down the subtitles Chris! There's a story on the BBC about a drugs bust on a fishing boat off Newquay. Connected?

[@cornwallguide]

Yep, sorry about that. Too much to say and not enough footage. And, no. According to Cornwall Live (!!) the two weren't connected. Just a good day for Customs.

[@barryckemp907]

Not even scratching the surface on what comes in!

[@gofiodetrigo8756]

luckily we can slow it down ourselves with the playback speed setup

[@jamescraven5001]

We have just got back from newquay we was there when it happened

[@hasnainy]

Wow so exciting- well done for those 2 shots! Amazing

[@2002odella]

Subtitles are so fast they are pretty much unreadable

[@hasnainy]

And what an amazing beach 😊

[@oliverburch7803]

Book 'em, Jago

[@gofiodetrigo8756]

what wind direction was that day looks quite glassy

[@bittybottybutty9661]

You need to really slow it down, having to watch and read at speed is not good.

[@TheTeaLordRBLX]

Crazy

[@BIBIWCICC]

If he didn’t have the manners to answer the first question I would have told him to sod off when he asked what beach it was!

[@jj16485]

The guy is probably coming down off the adrenaline rush of the century and didn’t even register he was spoken to whilst dealing with arrested gang members no idea where precisely he is. I think he can be forgiven.

[@GaryMcKinnonUFO]

Coulda made a grab for what was on their boat ;+}

[@emmaearnshaw3282]

If only more people thought like this.

[@thereturnofdoctorepic6014]

Just round the corner from me. Scary!

[@flothestaffy7348]

350 kilos is the normal load, my bet is it came off a larger vessel heading up towards the channel. Unfortunately this is a very common occurrence as it seems to be the smugglers preferred route to get large amounts ashore.

[@timwannell6477]

Haha gotta love Cornwall!

[@Duggytripitier07]

Just a decoy.

[@ryminsta]

I'll beach comb more often I think

[@emmaearnshaw3282]

Early morning dog walks after storms is a must.

[@elliotmadethis1]

Gow did you manage to capture different angles . 🐀🧀

[@mickhardstaff6605]

Couldn't read a word of that , you just wasted 5 minutes of my life .

[@NotNowRaymond]

On a 2:31 video? 😄

[@cornwallguide]

It's not my fault you're illiterate...

[@mickhardstaff6605]

@@cornwallguide 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@emmaearnshaw3282]

Use the pause button....and put it on silent while you're there.