Man charged over $1bn K’gari cocaine racket to stay behind bars

One of the alleged crime ring members accused of conspiring to bring $1bn of cocaine ashore to Central Queensland has been refused bail in the Supreme Court.

Police busted a group of men allegedly trying to import $1bn worth of cocaine into Queensland. Picture: John Gass

One of the alleged crime ring members accused of conspiring to bring $1bn of cocaine ashore to Central Queensland from a mother ship in the Coral Sea has been refused bail in the Supreme Court.

Lawyers for Donald Vilaylath, 43, were in court on Friday before Justice Rebecca Treston to seek his release after his family agreed to put up a $50,000 surety secured against their $1.5m family home in Ipswich.

Vilaylath has been in custody since he was arrested at the Strathdee boat ramp in Burnett Heads on the evening of November 30.

Prosecutor Dylan Kerr, for the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, told the court that the fact that snorkels, face masks, head lamps and two-way radios were found by police in the Mazda Vilaylath allegedly travelled in with Ryan Sean Givney, excluded the inference that he was on a “trip to the beach”.

Mr Kerr submitted that the Supreme Court could infer that Givney and Vilaylath intended to use these items for their role in the cocaine conspiracy, where co-accused boat skipper David John Pfeffer and crewmate Mark Sloan picked up 1995kg of the drug off K’gari on November 29 and 30 but was seized by police before it could make it meet the others closer to Burnett Heads.

Police intercepted the drugs at a boat ramp at Burnett Heads.

Mr Kerr told the court that it was open for the court to infer that Vilaylath intended to take part in the cocaine conspiracy by boarding one of the smaller boats at the boat ramp.

Givney is alleged to have been the co-ordinator of the seven-member “shore party”, tasked with towing tinnies from Brisbane with one group in a hire car, and another in a four-wheel drive, to bring the tinnies to a boat ramp in Bundaberg on November 30, giving instructions on the encrypted app Threema.

Givney is confirmed to be an office bearer of the Comanchero bikie gang, police have alleged.

Vilaylath, 43, is one of 11 men and two teen boys all charged with conspiracy to import cocaine over the November plot.

Mr Kerr submitted Vilaylath should be kept in custody because he had a propensity for violence, having previously spent time in jail for a violent home invasion, grievous bodily harm and a wounding.

Mr Kerr submitted he was a risk of reoffending, a flight risk and a risk of interfering with witnesses.

The court has previously heard that a member of the alleged gang threatened to kill a broker who sold a boat to them.

“We kill that broker once we return,” the unnamed person allegedly said in an encrypted “group chat”.

Chelsea Waters, a solicitor from Guest Lawyers, told the court that the prosecution case against her client was weak case because he was not detected on any surveillance or police tracking of his phone prior to his arrest on November 30.

She submitted that this showed Vilaylath did not have a close or detailed involvement in the conspiracy, if he had any involvement at all.