One conviction, five acquittals, the disposal of a superyacht and revelations of a bizarre
international conspiracy — a plot to slip two tons of South America's finest into the sea
off the coast of England, held up by more than a hundred life jackets
A coke float, so to speak. We now have a lot of answers to this amazing story
but a major mystery remains: who is the boss behind it all, a man who goes by the
name "Rembrandt." To give yourself an underworld nickname of one of history's greatest artists
means you must be extraordinarily talented or suffer a raging ego, and perhaps both. The
Mob Reporter here with details of what happened after a luxury yacht was intercepted on the high
seas last year carrying an immensely valuable cargo, the details of how their plot unraveled,
the fate of the crew, and what's now happened to that beautiful boat. Let me tell you about it
We'll start with the poor sap left holding the bag — not just one bag, though, there were
96 of them, waterproof and heavy. Inside each was brick after brick after brick — more than
2,000 of them, neatly wrapped and tightly packed, in total weighing more than two tons. Police estimated
the cocaine was worth 160 million British pounds; that's equivalent to about 200 million US dollars
His name is Andrew Cole, 33, of Stockton-on-Tees in England's north. Here he is when he
was arrested in September after the dramatic high seas interception, 80 miles off of England's coast
Cole was riding the waves in high fashion, in a 37-meter superyacht
I told you of the yacht's boarding when it happened, in a video I'll link to below
It was a fascinating tale with what i knew then, but now we finally learn the inside story
"Police! Get back from the door! Get back from the door! Police!"
The yacht has a story of its own. Called the Kahu she started life as a military vessel, formerly
serving as a Royal New Zealand Navy patrol ship. When she was decommissioned in 2009 it was bought
by the wealthy owner of a New Zealand superyacht shipyard who rebuilt, repurposed, and refitted it
as a long-range, high-end expedition adventure yacht — and it's had some adventures. The ship's
owner back then was Peter White-Robinson and he told me of how his family left New Zealand in 2012
on an around-the-world adventure. When they stopped for a visit on Canada's west coast his company ran
into financial trouble and its assets sold. That included his yacht. The Kahu changed hands a
few times over the years, and last summer it was bought with a different adventure in mind. Andrew
Cole was the point man. Cole was named as the link between a transnational criminal organization
and a group based in Britain planning to take delivery of the load near the English Channel
The plot began with buying the Kahu in Florida. Cole traveled to Costa Rica and to Panama in May
2021 and in early July flew from Panama to Miami and the next day flew to Barbados, where the Kahu
arrived from Florida on July 29th, sailing under a Jamaican flag. Cole was listed on the Kahu's
manifest as a crewman, but his role wasn't nautical. He was babysitting the cargo it would hold
and in charge of making sure it got from South America to the streets of England
The Kahu set sail from Port St. Charles in Barbados
toward South America with a six-man crew: Cole and five Nicaraguans, including a captain
There, a second ship met the Kahu off the Atlantic coast of Suriname, where the load of
black bags of coke were transferred onto the yacht before sailing east towards Europe. Once the Kahu
approached the English coast, their plan was to jettison Cole wearing a wetsuit from the yacht's
rear swimming platform, along with the black bags all wrapped in cargo nets, into the English Channel —
buoyed by more than 100 life jackets. A third ship was then to leave England's port of Southampton
and pick up Cole and the cargo after Cole sent them the signal, a message reading "Willy is free"
The problem was, the plot was at least partially arranged using an encrypted phone app
called AN0M, which purported to be a secret communication system for criminals but it was
really a police sting operation run by the FBI and the Australian Federal Police. The Aussies alerted
the British cops to Cole's and Rembrandt's plans and Britain's national crime agency was on to them
watching the Kahu's progress. Cole was anxious to impress Rembrandt and kept in touch with him
on the journey, letting him know how it was going every step of the way using a Samsung
mobile phone and a satellite connection. On August 28, for example, Cole sent a message
after the Suriname transfer of the load onto the Kahu — "Count is complete. 2,000 bits" it read
Messages sometimes referred to the boss as Julio. Another message from Cole read: "Looking forward to
getting back to Blighty and making you proud boss." Blighty is a slang term for Britain. Cole
also sent him a video clip of the open ocean with the note: "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity"
Cole did make it back to Britain — but it wasn't the happy return he envisioned and I'm sure his boss
wasn't so impressed. Two U.K. border force vessels were covertly monitoring and tracking the Kahu
as it approached English waters and before Cole could free his willy, on September 9
2021, a 42-meter cutter and a 19-meter coastal patrol boat intercepted the yacht and boarded
her. Cole sent two last desperate messages from his phone; one was a photo of the patrol ships
approaching him. The other was four words: "Ee are getting boarded." A reply came in a panic
"Throw all phones. Did you copy? Throw all phones." Cole never got to read that reply, though
He had already tried to smash the phone but it was recovered and repaired by police. Two weeks later
police raided homes in Hartlepool, a port town in England's north, not far from where Cole lived
Four men and a woman were taken into custody on suspicions of conspiracy in the yacht plot. Here's
what's happened since. On May 26, 2022, Cole was sentenced to 18 years in prison. He had earlier
admitted his role in the plot and agreed to plead guilty. The evidence against him on the phone was
overwhelming. It included a drawing of how the bags were to be suspended by the life jackets
The Nicaraguan skipper and his crew, however, were all cleared of their charges
after a trial in March. A jury seemed to accept that they were hapless helpers in a scheme by Cole
and external forces, although they were detained on immigration charges. As for the Kahu, she was
seized as a government asset and recently put up for sale in a no-reserve online auction held in
Belfast, Ireland, by Wilson's Auctions. Instead of hiding the ship's past it was highlighted in the
sales pitch. It would certainly give a few stories for the owner to tell while sailing. Unfortunately
The Mob Reporter's bid just wasn't enough. When the hammer fell the winning bid was 473,500
British pounds, that's about 750 000 U.S. dollars. The mysterious Rembrandt, meanwhile, also known as
Julio, has so far kept off the grid. Court heard the Kahu's owners at the time of the seizure
were based in the Marshall Islands. That's a group of small islands in the Pacific ocean. The Marshall
Islands are most famous as the site of World War II battles and is home to Bikini Atoll — that's the
U.S. nuclear bomb testing site until 1958. As for the old owner of Kahu, the man who had the amazing
and crazy idea of crafting a luxury yacht out of a navy patrol boat who i introduced you to
in a previous video, well, Peter White-Robinson told me this week he heard the auction for his
old ship was coming up. Quote: "Someone got a good deal for that price, unfortunately it wasn't me
who bought her. I miss her a lot, but life has to go on." And life goes on for the Kahu as well
Bon voyage. Maybe we'll meet her again. Thanks for watching and please subscribe