A seasoned fisherman who met King Charles multiple times has been jailed for his role in a cocaine-smuggling plot.

Peter Williams was the captain of an inflatable which picked up drugs packages off the Cornish coast as part of a lucrative international operation.

But Border Force teams began to get suspicious and gave chase as Williams and co-conspirators Scott Johnston, 39, and Edwin Tabora Baca, 33, tried to shake them off in their rigid inflatable boat (RIB).

The trio even tried dumping their illegal cargo – worth £18 million – overboard as they sought to outpace Border Force.

They were eventually chased onto a beach near Land’s End where they were arrested.

Williams, of Havant in Hampshire, was handed a jail term of 16 years and nine months at Truro Crown Court on Thursday.

Co-conspirator Bobbie Pearce, 29, of Brentwood in Essex, was sentenced to 15 years and four months in prison.

Both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import Class A drugs.

Four other men had already been jailed over the smuggling.

The court heard Williams was a respected voice in the fishing industry and had met with Government officials as well as the King.

But he had fallen on hard times, and resorted to drugs after seeing his father die at sea.

Defending Williams, lawyer Harry Laidlaw told the court: ‘He knew full well what he was getting himself into.

‘He just captained the boat. He was a foot soldier acting under instruction.

‘He did not have an operational or management role in the chain.

‘His role was simple albeit skilled.’

Mr Laidlaw told the judge that Williams was involved in a charity called Fishing Into The Future.

He said King Charles was previously a charity trustee and that they met several times as they promoted sustainable fishing and encouraging young people into the industry.

‘It has been a massive fall from grace,’ Mr Laidlaw said. ‘He has not made his money from crime.

‘He was an upstanding member of the local coastal community.

‘He has made a terrible series of decisions.’

The prosecution said the drugs were brought from South America on a cargo vessel across the Atlantic and were dumped in water tight bales into the sea in the English Channel.

The bales were fitted with GPS tracking devices attached to Apple air tags so that they could be recovered from the sea by the smaller vessel and transported to mainland Cornwall to be off loaded and transported elsewhere in the country.

But despite the technology, the three men on the boat only managed to find 11 of the 20 bales – and dumped them during the chase.

Six large containers containing around 230kg of ‘high-purity cocaine’ were later recovered from the ocean by Border Force officers and the men were arrested.

The other conspirators were arrested at later times after National Crime Agency investigators trawled through CCTV footage, phone call data and phone messages.

Pearce and three other men – Alex Fowlie, 35, of Chichester; Michael May, 47, of Kelveden Hatch, Essex; and Terry Willis, 44, of Chelmsford, Essex – helped plan and organise the cocaine smuggling operation and pick up.

Willis also admitted money laundering and possessing a revolver and live ammo which were found in a rucksack in his bedroom cupboard.

Tabora Baca – who claimed to be a tourist who had accepted a boat invitation from two strangers to go fishing – was the Spanish speaking link between the higher figures in the operation and had flown into the country on several occasions.

But messages on his phone discussed the group’s plans and shared a photo of the cocaine on the vessel.

Johnston played a significant role as he piloted the RHIB and helped dump the cocaine during the pursuit.

The judge said two organised crime groups were involved – one in the South West involving the boat and retrieval of the drugs from the sea – and the other in Essex where the cocaine would have been taken to be cut, divided and sold on to street dealers.

Tabora Baca was jailed for 17 years and seven months and will be deported, Johnston was jailed for 24 years, Willis for 21 years and 8 months which included five years for the firearm offence, and May was jailed for 19 years.

Fowlie, 35, of Chichester will be sentenced on 5 September.