Livestock Carrier's Chief Officer Charged With Cocaine Smuggling

The chief officer of a foreign-flagged livestock carrier has been charged in connection with an attempt to smuggle at least half a tonne of cocaine into Australia, according to the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

On November 6, some passing boaters found large, suspicious packages attached to floating drums at a position about 15 nautical miles off the coast of Western Australia. They alerted the authorities, and the AFP and Western Australia Police Force sent a team to investigate. The police retrieved the bundles from the water and collected about 525 kilos of cocaine. The estimated street value of the shipment - at ultra-high Australian cocaine prices - comes to about US$110 million, or just over US$200,000 per kilo.

The next day, dozens of policemen searched a livestock carrier at Fremantle. The search teams discovered a blue drum and pieces of line that allegedly matched the gear found floating with the cocaine off the coast. They also found an area where railings had been removed and reinstalled, and where a shipboard CCTV camera had been covered over - part of the logistical arrangements for dumping the cocaine over the side when the vessel approached Fremantle, according to the AFP.

The chief officer of the ship - a Croatian national - was detained and charged with attempting to import a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug.

Separately, the police also arrested two Sydney residents who had been rescued from a pleasure boat in distress on November 3. The boat was taking on water at a position off Guilderton, some 40 nautical miles north of Fremantle. The voyage 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 ocean using small craft for transport. The two Sydney residents face the serious charge of possessing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug, potentially punishable by life in prison.

The inquiry into the attempted cocaine importation scheme is ongoing, and more arrests are expected.

"There is violence and exploitation throughout the illicit drug supply chain and drug use puts immense pressure on our health systems - in 2022-23 there were 985 cocaine-related hospitalizations nationally, more than two each day on average," said AFP Assistant Commissioner Pryce Scanlan.