Text messages, jam bottles and 300kg cocaine doublecross: How police busted massive drug importation
The plot began in 2016, with a shipping container full of drugs heading from Peru to Queensland’s Top End. But then 300kg of cocaine disappeared.
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Police officers have intercepted the messages of a drug syndicate. They’re watching the text live when they realise there’s a shipping container on the water bound for Queensland. And it looks like there’s 300kg of cocaine hidden inside.
This was one of many moments the Australian Federal Police knew they were closing in on an international drug syndicate conspiring to smuggle more than $90 million worth of drugs into the country.
The mammoth bust, which saw multiple arrested and put behind bars, was one of the biggest at the time in 2018, targeting a the small town of Bamaga in The Cape York Peninsula.
The Sunday Mail spoke with the Australian Federal Police investigators who helped bring down the international syndicate, revealing more about how they closed in and prevented more than 600kg of cocaine from being smuggled into the country.
Two of the men behind the elaborate plan were Paul Michael Smith, 63, and Jeffrey John Sagar, 68 – who were last week sentenced to 50 years’ jail, collectively.
They were the perfect criminals – unsuspecting and unknown to police, with hardly a black mark to their name.
The job first fell onto the desk of AFP Leading Senior Constable Mark Ashworth in 2017, who had at the time only been with Queensland Joint Organised Crime Taskforce for a month. It was the beginning of a job that would become the biggest of his career.
The initial information was about a man in Papua New Guinea who was planning to import “liquid drugs” into Queensland.
Investigators were able to intercept communications and read messages from more than a year earlier, and in live time, revealing much bigger plans were being made between Sagar and Smith.
In April 2016, the group had planned to bring in blocks of drugs concealed in sea cargo from South America.
They discussed various ways to do it without being flagged, including disguising the drugs in a shipment of passionfruit concentrate, and even a black flight, but eventually settled on a 20ft container loaded with jam.
Their plan was clever – setting up a company which imported plausible goods to PNG from overseas, communicating in code, and running test shipments to make sure no one was watching.
But they didn’t know their every move was being monitored – every call, text, email and meet-up was happening while AFP were monitoring in real time.
“They were persistent, they were fairly well educated in police methodology, which meant we had to keep that in mind, and it’s very much a game of chess sometimes,” Constable Ashworth said.
“The plan at that stage was there was going to be 300kg of blocks concealed in the container under cover of the portrayed goods.”
The container set sail from Peru in September, 2017 and police were ready – but they found nothing. The group had been ripped off by an unknown third party who stole the cocaine.
“From the intercepted communications we had at the time, it seemed obvious that the Australians and the PNG side of the syndicate expected it to have drugs in it, too.
“You would think that would show that there was a weakness in the importation methodology or technique. But they talked themselves back into it within about 20 days.
“I found that really, really intriguing because to me that is indicative of just how much there is to gain by bringing these illegal drugs into the Australian market.”
The second container was almost on the water when police made their move and swooped on the syndicate in Peru.
Multiple people were arrested in South America before the Australian syndicate members had any idea what had happened.
It meant police had a small window of time to make arrests and seize evidence in Brisbane, Airlie Beach and Sydney.
“Any evidence that was remaining in Australia was likely to be lost because everybody would panic and they’d just burn everything to the ground.”
The arrests led to Sagar and Smith being charged with conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of border controlled drugs, and last week they were found guilty of their crimes in a trial at Brisbane Supreme Court.
Sagar was sent to jail for 24 years, with a non-parole period of 12 years.
Smith was sentenced to spend 26 years with a non-parole period of 16 years.
Leading Senior Constable Mark Ashworth said the job was the biggest in his career.
“This, for me will, I think will probably be the high watermark of my policing career. I actually really do believe that.
“I’ve been a police officer for nearly 13 years. And almost half of that has been involved in this job.”
AFP Detective Superintendent Adrian Telfer said criminals bringing drugs into Australia hadn’t slowed down, and had more impacts on the community than many realised.
“The community probably don’t appreciate that everyday crime that they see is as a result of these importations.
“The end product for our community is a house being broken into, a phone that’s stolen, all that high-volume crime that impacts people’s lives. The cause is the drugs.”
Leading Senior Constable Mark Ashworth said they would never let the syndicates win.
“The syndicates we are up against have no rules, they don’t care, they are purely driven by greed.
“They are a poison in our community which is why we are as passionate as we are about making sure they get to meet people like us occasionally.”
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