The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Stormy drugs trip, with customs baffled
In Part 2 of our series investigating fugitive drugs baron Julian Chisholm, we look at how he dramatically expanded his empire...
Chisholm’s network that brought record £100 million consignment of cocaine to Scotland
Within days of suffering a setback trying to set up a big cannabis deal in Africa, north-east drugs baron Julian Chisholm began plotting his biggest score to date.
But this time it was not cannabis.
It would be a quest to land Scotland’s biggest drugs haul – £100 million of pure, uncut Colombian cocaine.
To set up the score, Chisholm, still in his mid20s, would have to link up with some of the world’s most dangerous gangs – members of the Basque separatist group ETA and the Colombian Cali Cartel.
Eugene Costello, author of a book called White Gold, about the cocaine deal, said: “ETA needed cash to fund their operation in Spain and so people like Chisholm were easy money.
“They had a freighter called the Dimar-b which would sail around the world.
“Chisholm would pay them to be his own personal taxi service – and that crew was key to this operation.”
Two more crucial players in the score in November 1990 were Ullapool divers Chris Howarth and Noel Hawkins – though they didn’t know it at the time.
The pair headed off in a friend’s van on a 45-mile journey south to Muir of Ord, where pals were holding a Burn Maggie Thatcher evening.
Howarth and Hawkins drank the night away among friends – and then got a rude awakening when they were suddenly bundled into a car and whisked away to the airport.
Customs boss Graham Dick told us: “Chisholm’s gang basically started to get their act together.
“And (Chisholm’s righthand men) Ian Rae and David Forrest dragged Howarth and Hawkins out of the party – they were on a plane before they knew what had hit them and they were going to Spain.
“We had a surveillance team at the airport, we saw Julian Chisholm pick up Howarth and Hawkins.
“They left the airport and the Spanish police lost them and we didn’t have a clue where they were.”
The pair spent the night in the Pension Armando hotel in San Pedro de Alcantra and then travelled to Gibraltar, where they were told to meet a local man.
He took them to the harbour and they were lowered on to a dinghy, which took them out to sea – and on to the Dimar-b.
The men spent their next two weeks sailing towards the coast of Venezuela, as guests of ruthless ETA members.
Mr Costello said: “These associates of Chisholm were doing all the hard graft while he was safe on land, out of the line of fire – and that’s how it always was with Chisholm.
“He was always the puppet master pulling the strings.”
When the Dimar-b got close to the South American coastline, two light aircraft controlled by the Cali Cartel arrived and dropped 16 bales into the water.
Each was about the size of a suitcase, containing masses of cocaine worth about £6m a bale.
The drugs were loaded on to the Dimar-b, which then set its course to northwest Scotland.
“They had this ingenious system on board that allowed them to press one lever and dump the whole lot overboard – so if the US Navy came towards them, they could get rid of all the evidence,” said Mr Costello.
Customs were stumped as to what Chisholm’s gang was up to.
They knew something was happening but assumed it was tied to cannabis and so were looking for signs of activity in Europe.
Mr Dick said: “It was frustrating as hell.
“We were conducting maritime surveillance (in Europe).
“We were trying to identify every yacht that we could find and we didn’t find anything suspicious and we didn’t know where they were.”
While customs officers were scouring the sea for any signs of Chisholm’s man, the Dimar-b was entering Scottish waters – and straight into the path of a force-10 gale.
Then it was time for Chris Howarth and Noel
Hawkins to play their part.
Mr Costello said: “This is what they had been tasked by Chisholm to do – it was showtime for them.
“This was December 1990, a horrendous storm. Getting into that water in a dinghy would mean probable death.
“But the ETA members on the Dimar-b didn’t care.
“Howarth told them: ‘We can’t possibly land the gear in these conditions.’
“They had done their bit as a taxi service and so they were telling Howarth and Hawkins to go.”
With no choice, the pair were lowered into choppy waters with £100m of cocaine in their dinghy.
They were thrown about like ragdolls and got into trouble when a rope was chewed up in the propeller – but they used an ice-pick to cut the rope. Miraculously, Howarth and Hawkins battled the incredibly dangerous conditions and survived.
Dripping wet and freezing, the pair landed the drugs and stashed them in a cove at Clashnessie Bay, 45 miles north of Ullapool.
The fear soon turned to joy as they celebrated the biggest score of their lives.
They had somehow manage to evade the gaze of customs and police.
Customs were still in the dark – until one key moment changed everything.
A few days before Christmas, Ullapool police officer Sgt Mclennan, saw something that made his jaw drop.
He was walking along the street when he saw Noel Hawkins – with a fresh suntan. Mr Dick said: “Mike saw Noel and one of our guys saw Chris.
“They both had suntans. None of it made sense to us.
“What did make sense was that they were back, they were suntanned and they were very happy.
“So whatever they had done had been successful.
“We were confused, we were frustrated and pretty despondent for a period of time, because we still didn’t know what had happened. Those were interesting days.”
However, customs still had the upper hand.
They knew that it was unlikely the £100m stash had been moved because they had surveillance on Ian Rae and David Forrest, the men who Chisholm usually tasked with collection.
So it became a tense waiting game.
But that game of “who will blink first?” was a slow one, because the weather was so poor over the festive period.
It was almost impossible for Rae and Forrest to drive from their homes in Angus and Dundee to Ullapool, due to blizzards.
“Harsh winter weather aside, Chisholm was getting anxious,” said Mr Costello.
He added: “He had all this gear stashed away and knew it had to be moved before a loose-lipped person in Ullapool informed the police.
“Chisholm wanted to get the show on the road as soon as the weather would allow – and that spectacular showdown came on January 6 1991.”