Seized smuggling 57ft yacht Golem sold for £95,000

Seized drug- and weapon-smuggling boats – the 17.4m (57ft) yacht Golem and 11.6m (38ft) motor cruiser Albernina – went under the hammer last night in an unreserved Government auction.

Golem went for £95,000 – far less that the £300,000 it sold for a couple of years ago, while Albernina sold for £14,750, at the auction which was held in Belfast, Northern Ireland with online and phone bidding available.

Golem

A spokesman for Wilsons Auctions said both boats needed repair work and the new owner of Golem intended to spend the next 18 months fixing her up. Other items among the high-value lots in the Wilsons Auctions Unreserved Government & Property Auction included Rolex, Breitling and Cartier watches, a Mercedes Benz C200 Sport car, jet-skis, diamond jewellery and electronics.

Golem, a Nordia sloop yacht, was intercepted by government officials on 31 August 2015 carrying almost a tonne of cocaine across the Atlantic from the southern Caribbean. The sailors on board were sentenced to more than 34 years in prison.

Forensic tests on the packages revealed the cocaine was 70 per cent pure, and if adulterated and sold in the UK would have had a potential street value of around £120million.

Meanwhile, Albernina was used in the importation of firearms and resulted in the largest seizure of automatic weapons on the UK mainland. The five men responsible were given prison sentences totalling more than 90 years.