Global 1.5t ‘Louis Vuitton’ cocaine conspiracy allegedly masterminded in Adelaide, Supreme Court told

A luxury-branded 1.5 tonne cocaine shipment was one of the biggest Australian law enforcement had ever seen before the scheme’s chaotic demise, a court has heard.

An audacious plan to import what would have been Australia’s largest known cocaine haul at the time was run by a global organised crime syndicate with its alleged apex in Adelaide’s northern suburbs, a court has heard.

The syndicate, which had members in Spain, Italy, the Philippines, rural NSW and Sydney, allegedly worked together to bankroll a 1.5t shipment of Louis Vuitton-branded cocaine from Ecuador with a minimum street value of $348m.

However, the plan begun to come unstuck when the second boat was too small to handle the drug haul, the Australian crew started to get paranoid and civil unrest rocked Colombia, police allege.

For the first time details of the alleged plan, which prosecutors say would have netted senior members at least $20m each, have been aired in open court.

Using AN0M devices the group allegedly arranged to have the shipment purchased from a cartel in Colombia and moved to Ecuador where it would be shipped by boat to Papua New Guinea.

In a Supreme Court bail review on Monday, a Commonwealth prosecutor told Justice Adam Kimber a 47-year-old northern suburbs man was allegedly “sitting at the very apex of a drug importation and trafficking business which operated coast to coast”.

The alleged mastermine of a conspiracy to import 1.5t of cocaine from Ecuador being arrested in Adelaide.

He and his South Australian co-accused cannot be named for legal reasons.

The man is charged with importing 18kg of cocaine hidden in a safe that was delivered to Adelaide Airport from Greece.

He is also charged with allegedly masterminding the shipment of 10kg of methamphetamine from Adelaide to Perth.

Prosecutors say the conspiracy to import 1.5t of cocaine was of “extraordinary seriousness”.

At the time the import would have been the largest known shipment in Australian history.

The court heard that in November 2020 the man allegedly sent his SA co-accused a message over the AN0M app saying “brother, you got a water team that will go to Solomon Islands or PNG?”

Prosecutors alleged the syndicate put forward millions of dollars as a down payment for the drugs.

The Australian crew was alleged to have provided $2m alone, while Europe based members put forward $6m.

The total price of the drugs was to be in the “20s” – a reference to more than $20m.

Senior figures in the group were alleged to be operating in Spain and Italy.

It is not alleged they would receive the drugs themselves but payment for acting as middlemen in the transaction.

“Italy asking for (you), reckons we need to start paying something,” one of the messages between the SA men said.

The job started to come unstuck when the “daughter” ship, which was to meet the “mother” ship based out of Ecuador, could not hold the full 1.5t. Instead they could only take 1.2t.

Cocaine worth $20m has been found hidden inside two welding machines. The haul was later linked to an organised crime syndicate. Picture: Australian Border Force.

The mother ship was described as a “massive fishing vessel” with 11 crew members armed with permits to be fishing off PNG for as long as three months.

The daughter ship on the other hand was significantly smaller.

“Max 1200 … Second boat can’t handle more than that,” a message from the head of the “water team” wrote over AN0M.

The court heard the ship out of Ecuador was expected to take 28 days before it rendezvoused off the coast of Papua New Guinea.

The boat had charter fishing accreditation to justify its presence in the open ocean and would then travel back down the east coast of Australia towards Sydney.

“Where are we going to put 1.5t in Sydney?” one of the SA men messaged the other.

A member of the Lone Wolf Motorcycle Gang operating out of Sydney allegedly messaged the SA men and asked whether they needed to guard the cocaine.

“We need to arrange storage and some serious weapons for security if we are storing it bro,” the Sydney man allegedly said.

“Brother once we got it (we) will have transport ready to go,” the SA man allegedly replied.

Various methods of smuggling the shipment into Sydney were allegedly canvassed, including a speed boat run and dropping it off shore and sending divers to retrieve it.

The court heard the syndicate referred to the shipment as Louis Vuitton, or LV for short, after the branding on the kilogram packages of the drug.

The syndicate were alleged to have used a “door” – a middle person who secures the entry or exit of large quantities of drugs.

A significant portion of the drugs were to be shipped to Adelaide via freight trucks.

The shipment was nearly ready to leave Colombia when civil unrest swept the country in April and May 2021, preventing the drugs from being moved to Ecuador.

To complicate matters the daughter ship allegedly left port for the rendezvous before the drugs were ready.

The Spain based member of the syndicate sent an angry message to the SA members when asked for a photo of the drug haul in Colombia.

“I am not going to be made to look like a clown because of you that went ahead and sent the ship without waiting for OK? Understand?” he wrote.

“To send 4 lousy monies you took 2 months and you sent over a ship without out OK. You said 1500 and then only 1200.

“And I too have a little doubt as to whether you have a safe exit at this stage but I never asked you a photo of the ship as that would be seen as offensive.”

The court also heard the man was allegedly linked to the sale of large amounts of methamphetamine between Perth and Sydney.

The prosecutor alleged the drugs would be driven to Perth hidden in specially designed crates and money would return.

He said $8m in cash had been returned to Sydney in one shipment.

Sam Abbott KC, for the man, said the charges would be contested and prosecutors could not tie an AN0M device to his client.

The court heard more than 11,000 messages were sent from the vicinity of the man’s home and a further 160 from the vicinity of a house belonging to a family member.

Justice Kimber will hand down his decision on bail on a date yet to be set.