In yet another drug trafficking case, the first mate of a livestock carrier was arrested on charges of trading and trafficking at least half a ton of cocaine in Australia, according to the Australian Federal Police (AFP).
The case began to unravel when various vessels located large, suspicious packages attached to floating barrels, approximately 15 nautical miles off the coast of Western Australia. They immediately notified the authorities, and the Western Australia Police sent a team to investigate the suspicious packages.
Following their inspection, the police collected approximately 525 kilograms of cocaine. The estimated value of the shipment, in Australia’s highly profitable cocaine market, amounts to approximately 110 million US dollars, or just over 200,000 US dollars per kilogram.
The next day, dozens of police officers searched a livestock carrier in Fremantle. The authorities discovered a blue barrel and pieces of rope that were reported to match the equipment found floating with the cocaine offshore.
They also found a location on the ship where railings had been removed and reinstalled and where a ship’s CCTV camera had been covered, part of the measures taken to discard the drugs at sea and cover the movements of the person who threw them, according to the AFP.
The ship’s first mate, a Croatian national, was arrested and is charged with attempting to import a large quantity of drugs into the country.
The police also arrested two more Sydney residents who had been rescued from a pleasure craft in distress on November 3. The vessel was sailing off Gilderthon, approximately 40 nautical miles north of Fremantle.
The journey seemed suspicious, and after further investigation, the police believe that the two men – and a third accomplice from Perth – had attempted to retrieve the cocaine from the sea using a small boat. The two Sydney residents face the serious charge of possession and trafficking of drugs, which is punishable by life imprisonment.
The investigation into the attempted cocaine import is ongoing, and more arrests are expected.
“There is violence and exploitation throughout the illicit drug supply chain, and drug use places enormous pressure on our health systems. In 2022-23, there were 985 hospitalizations related to cocaine nationally, more than two every day on average,” said AFP Assistant Commissioner Pryce Scanlan.
Unfortunately, lately we are seeing a surge in drug trafficking by sailors, mainly due to the high rewards promised by drug traffickers to them. Special attention is needed, and sailors should stay away from such transports, as it is something that can cost them their freedom for the rest of their lives.
