Quoting a previous Neil Gates contribution:-

On August 18th 1989 the officials on the landward claimed that the
station(Radio 819) was a front for drug smuggling. Do you believe them
and do you think their drug profits were financing the communicator?

Well, well, well. Very interesting. I don't think I've spoken of this in public before, but very definitely yes on the 'something' smuggling, which I'd assume was drugs. They would spend ages adjacent certain buoys pulling up ropes, loading packages and then letting them back down again. I remember a conversation with one of them explaining to me exactly how they would 'weight' their packages to stop them from floating, and witnessing such a drop, but being very careful not to ask exactly what was inside. Those they didn't feel confident with would be locked below so they couldn't witness what was going on. Some would be given bunks to sleep on and asked not to come up until they were told it was safe to do so. I'm sure a few Caroline people will have told you about this procedure at the time.

I didn't see anything myself but I have it on 'hearsay' at the time that the Communicator was being used to store and repackage some stuff as well.

Having said all that, it may not have been everybody behind the scenes of Radio 819 that was involved, maybe just one or two, you probably know who I mean. And certainly most of the guys organising the programming wouldn't have known fully what was going on, but they probably knew something even if today they deny it.
--
* Christopher England just said that *