Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2012 | Page 71

ON THE WATER

Mark's busy life set
to turn full circle
By Peter White
Life is about to turn full circle for
Mark Southwell, a former Island
Customs Officer who is now
operations manager for Cowes RNLI.
While helping patrol the waters
around the Island, Mark was based
for many years at the Custom House,
adjacent to the Island Sailing Club in
The Parade, Cowes, and was directly
involved in some of the biggest ‘drug
busts’ this country has ever seen.
Now by a quirk of fate he will soon
be returning to the building where he
spent so much of his time between
1982 and 2005, as it will shortly
become the new headquarters for
the town’s RNLI, following a highly
successful appeal to raise funds for the
much-needed move.
Despite being born in London,
Mark has always had an affinity to
the water, especially after moving
down to Chichester with his family
as a youngster. After leaving school
he secured a job in Customs, and was

later transferred to Southampton. As a
relief officer he was asked to carry out
a spell on the Island, so he arrived here
in 1982, initially just for six months.
But after marrying an Island girl he
soon made it his home as well as place
of work.
Mark, 55, recalls: “Initially I spent
the winters here, and the summers out
in the Solent in a patrol boat. But I
came back here full time in 1990, and
have been here ever since.”
During his many years as a Customs
Officer Mark was caught up in a
number of high-profile operations,
which he describes as ‘Britain’s Biggest’
in relation to what actually happened.
He explained: “In 1992 I was involved
with something named ‘Operation
Ice’ which BBC and ITV later made
documentaries about. It was the first
time that all the law enforcement
agencies around the world got together
and seized the money from drug
smuggling rather than the actual
drugs.
“It was discovered that it was more

effective to get the money off the
people involved, because actually
finding the drugs was never easy. The
British end of it was to buy some of
the drugs off the dealers at a hotel
in London, and that led us back to a
yacht that arrived in Cowes during the
Regatta Week in 1992 from the West
Indies. It came in and anchored right
behind the Royal Yacht.
“It was heading for Island Harbour
where a berth and house had already
been rented. Eventually it got to Island
Harbour, and a canopy was put over
it to partially cover it. For a couple
of days the guys on board were seen
carrying carrier bags into the house,
but none of the neighbours knew what
they were doing.
“The gang then drove the
consignment up to London and that
is where our Customs Officers bought
the drugs in an undercover sting in
the London hotel. A Cowes taxi driver
actually took them to London, without
knowing what was happening.
“We subsequently discovered that
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