Feds fail to stop boat carrying $2.4b worth of drugs after tailing wrong vessel

By targeting the wrong boat off the NSW coast, the Australian Federal Police failed to stop a 1.6 tonne importation of cocaine. Then they kept it secret from NSW Police.

The Australian Federal Police failed to stop a 1.6 tonne importation of cocaine worth $2.4 billion bound for Sydney because they followed the wrong boat off the coast of Newcastle and kept the entire operation secret from NSW police.

The AFP blunder and refusal to tell anyone for seven weeks gave NSW police no chance to track the drugs when it hit the streets and comes after they ceased sharing vital information about drug seizures with all state police last year.

AFP officials met with state authorities - including NSW Police - last week and admitted their mistake. It’s understood NSW Police were already aware, having known about the missing importation for weeks.

The AFP failed to stop a $2.4 billion cocaine importation when they followed the wrong boat. Picture: NSW police

“Sources had come forward and were telling us that a massive import of coke had slipped through,” a NSW Police source said.

“The AFP never said anything about it until last week.

“If they had of put their hand up straight away and admitted what happened, and told us who was behind it we might have been able to stop it.”

The Daily Telegraph can reveal it is the latest incident to drive a wedge between the nation’s law enforcement groups, worsened when they implemented a policy of reducing information about drug seizures with state police in late-2023.

Senior police say this policy has led to murders on the streets and that hundreds of drug investigations are “dying on the dock.”

The AFP has stopped sharing information relating to drug seizures and importations with state police. Picture: NSW police

It is believed a mothership carrying the drugs and another ship were off the coast of Newcastle on August 6 but the AFP were only able to surveil one vessel.

The AFP said they would not comment on the embarrassing loss for operational reasons.

Police sources said it has been common practice in recent years for detailed information around drug seizures made by the Australian Border Force to passed onto the AFP who control the release to the states. But this practice of sharing abruptly stopped sharing last year.

“Identifying details were removed from border seizure data in August 2023. Western Australian police are working with the ABF in an effort to reverse that decision,’’ a WA police spokesperson said yesterday.

An international covert operation has prevented a record 2.4 tonnes of cocaine worth one billion dollars from entering WA. Picture: WA Police

Previously police would know of all most seizures no matter how small with data about the size, where it came from, who it was for, phone numbers and addresses relating to the importation. That has been stripped from AFP reports.

The change in policy came after two US Drug Administration agents were kicked out of the country last year when Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw complained to US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy about how they operated.

It followed Operation Beech carried out by WA police after the DEA agent tipped them off about a Mexican drug cartel importation which led to the biggest cocaine seizure in Australian history of 2.4 tonnes.

Originally published as Feds fail to stop boat carrying $2.4b worth of drugs after tailing wrong vessel