THREE Accrington men were involved in an elaborate international plot which could have flooded the streets of East Lancashire with £6.5M worth of cocaine.
The conspiracy, foiled by police and Customs officials, involved Colombian drug barons and a Dutch sailing crew.
Preston Crown Court heard the cocaine had been shipped from Brazil across the Atlantic aboard a luxury yacht.
Paul Jorgensen, 45, of Spring Hill Road, Accrington, was one of the men delegated to head out to sea in an inflatable speedboat to locate the yacht and bring the deadly drug ashore.
But he did not realise he was being observed by a surveillance team from the Serious and Organised Crime Agency.
Jorgensen denied conspiring to import the Class A drug but was found guilty after a trial.
Two other Accrington men, Steven Hegarty, 47, also of Spring Hill Road, and James Downie, 47, of Whalley Road, had previously admitted their part in the plot.
They will all be sentenced at a later date.
It is not clear how the trio knew the drug barons but Jorgensen met co-defendant Hegarty in a French prison where they were serving time for drug trafficking offences.
The jury heard how Customs officers found 90kgs of the drug hidden inside the shower compartment of the £100,000 Samba Pa Ti yacht after it had broken down off the coast of Southern Ireland.
Jorgensen and another man were arrested after making a two-hour practice run.
They had bought an inflatable speedboat for £3,000 and launched it from Freshwater Bay in South West Wales in May last year.
Jorgensen denied that he was due to benefit from a share of the £2M profit once the drugs were ashore.
Graham Reeds, prosecuting, said Jorgensen had initially lied in a police interview, claiming he was on nothing more than a fishing trip.
However, the court heard he later changed his story and claimed to have accompanied Hegarty to stop him from doing "anything stupid".
Jurors took two hours to unanimously convict Jorgensen.
Others who have admitted their part in the plot include Lee Morgan, 41, of Hapton, the Dutch captain of the yacht, his brother and two Brazilians.
A spokesman for the Serious and Organised Crime Agency said after the hearing: "This was an excellent result for law enforcement partnership which has kept a substantial quantity of cocaine off the streets of the North West."
