Shock twist in case of Breaking Bad-style pilot who escaped jail once by flying under radar
A pilot jailed for flying a small plane into Australia full of drugs did the same thing a decade earlier under a different name but escaped prison because the court heard he had cancer. See the latest twist to this story.
NSW
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A pilot jailed this year for flying a plane full of drugs into Australia did the same thing in NSW more than a decade ago under a different name – but escaped prison time because the court heard he was soon to die of cancer.
Bernhard Stevermuer gave a sob story to Port Kembla Local Court back in 2016 saying he was simply a naive man who only partnered with an international crime gang to bring drugs from the US across the Pacific and into Australia so his family had some money after he died of cancer.
At the time, the court heard Stevermuer possibly had five years left to live and he ultimately received a 12-month suspended jail sentence.
But Bernhard Stevermuer is still very much alive today.
However, he is now known as Bernard Hamilton Alexander and is currently just a few months into a minimum eight-year jail sentence for flying a plane containing 56kg of ice from Papua New Guinea into north Queensland.
The convictions of Stevermuer in 2016 and Alexander in 2025 received media coverage, but The Daily Telegraph can today reveal for the first time the incredible full story after shocked police realised the two men were one and the same.
The self-professed plane enthusiast’s involvement in “black flights” – the term used for smuggling drugs on light planes flying under the radar – began more than a decade ago.
In 2014, Stevermuer was charged with island hopping a Swearingen Merlin III twin-turbo prop engine plane from the US across the Pacific carrying drugs, before landing at Albion Park aerodrome, south of Wollongong.
Police said he was part of a major international crime syndicate involved in a $20m drug operation, for which he was said to have been paid $70,000 for his services.
During his trial, solicitor Mark Savic said his client had cancer with a likely 10 per cent survival rate over the next five years, and had been “blinded” into working for the crime syndicate by his “love of flying”.
“The excitement of flying a light aircraft all the way from the US back to Australia was a huge inducement in itself,” Mr Savic said.
The then-46-year-old father of two told police he had been diagnosed with stage-four cancer from a melanoma in 2011, but after surgery was in remission.
His sob story worked and after initially being sentenced to nine months in jail, he appealed and in 2015 was given a 12-month suspended sentence with a good behaviour bond.
Not long after, he changed his name from Stevermuer to Alexander and dropped off the radar.
That was until he came to the attention of police again in 2023.
In March that year, Alexander was up to his old tricks, this time flying a plane carrying 56kg of methamphetamine from PNG into a remote airfield in Queensland.
The crime carried the same hallmarks as the one he had carried out years earlier – a small plane, turning off transponders and landing at a small airstrip, where Alexander handed over five duffel bags filled with a white crystalline substance.
The court was told intercepted phone calls and a surveillance device in the plane helped the Australian Federal Police investigation.
Cops estimate the illicit cargo was worth about $17m and Alexander was set to receive $500,000 for his part in bringing it into the country.
Alexander was sentenced in the Bundaberg Supreme Court on June 14 after pleading guilty to importing a commercial quantity of a controlled drug, which carries a potential life sentence.
During sentencing, the court was told Alexander had a good upbringing with his parents and brother.
He had been married but had since separated.
Alexander did not appear to be your typical organised crime figure, with the court told he was a non-smoker, drank moderately and never took drugs.
The court also heard how in 2020 he was involved in a near-fatal microlight aircraft accident, in which he sustained serious abdominal injuries.
Justice Graham Crow said methamphetamine was a “terrible drug” which had devastating effects on people’s lives, before describing Alexander’s conduct as “really unexplainable”, pointing to his “limited criminal history”.
“It’s extraordinary that a man like you with your limited criminal history would get involved in this venture,” Justice Crow said.
“Just extraordinary.”
Despite claiming he was little more than a hired hand in the operation, Stevermuer was not so lucky in sentencing this time around, receiving a term of 11 years in jail, with a non-parole period of eight years.
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Originally published as Shock twist in case of Breaking Bad-style pilot who escaped jail once by flying under radar
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