Angler missing for 20 years drowned in suspected cross-Channel speedboat drug smuggling bid
Man who disappeared after ‘botched drug smuggling operation’ is declared dead
- Kent resident Anthony Dugdale, who disappeared 20 years ago after travelling to France, has been officially declared dead by a High Court judge.
- Dugdale, then 43, vanished in April 2004 after taking a speedboat to Calais with a friend, with his Mercedes later found abandoned near the Belgian-French border.
- Police investigations, initially focused on an angling trip, later concluded that Dugdale was involved in a botched drug smuggling operation across the English Channel.
- Evidence presented in court suggested Dugdale, described as 'not an able seaman,' likely drowned after his unsuitable speedboat was hit by a container ship.
- The declaration of death, sought by Dugdale's son, allows for the administration of his £33,000 estate, more than two decades after his disappearance.