TWO of the men involved in a plot to import almost 600 kilograms of cocaine have been sentenced to a combined 28 years imprisonment.
The Supreme Court of Brisbane sentenced one of the men, aged 42, to 15 years imprisonment, and the other man, aged 48, to 13 years’ imprisonment.
The pair pleaded guilty in October this year to importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug.
The 42-year old and an accomplice, aged 59, were arrested in August 2018 after they were involved in an ocean pursuit with authorities off the coast of Queensland and New South Wales.
Authorities tracked the pair as they travelled approximately 300 kilometres offshore in a high-powered inflatable boat to collect packages of cocaine that had been dropped from a larger ship.
Australian Defence Vessel (ADV) Cape Fourcroy attempted unsuccessfully to intercept the vessel as it returned to Queensland via northern NSW.
As the men attempted to evade authorities they threw the packages overboard, with the crew of Cape Fourcroy later recovering a total of 588 kilograms of cocaine from the ocean.
The men were arrested by the Queensland Water Police when they returned to Australian waters, 40 nautical miles east of Byron Bay, with the assistance of surveillance support from the Maritime Border Command (MBC).
The third man, aged 48, was arrested in June 2019, initially charged with aiding or abetting the importation.
The 59-year old man pleaded guilty in 2020 and was sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of four years and three months.
Authorities say the amount of cocaine intercepted could have been sold as an estimated 2.94 million street deals, worth approximately $147 million.
The arrests were part of Operation Solarstrike, a multi-agency investigation that included the Queensland Joint Organised Crime Taskforce (QJOCTF) and the Australian Border Force’s (ABF) Maritime Border Command.
Commander of the MBC, Rear Admiral Brett Sonter said the matter served as a timely reminder of MBC’s capabilities.
“This successful operation shows the strength of MBC’s ongoing partnership with our federal and state and territory counterparts to protect Australia’s border,” he said.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) superintendent Adrian Telfer said Operation Solarstrike spared Australians from the violence, addiction, and further criminality the shipment of cocaine would have brought to the country.
Queensland Police Service Detective Acting Superintendent David Briese, from the Drug and Serious Crime Group, Crime and Intelligence Command, described Operation Solarstrike as a multi-agency success.
“This outcome is a testament to the coordination and engagement between state and federal law enforcement agencies, who continue to work together through the targeting of those individuals who would seek to cause harm to the community via the illicit drug market,” Mr Briese said.
