Johan-Martinius Halversen and Jon Birger Karlsen: The inside story of Newcastle’s 82kg cocaine bust
The veil of secrecy which had enveloped the seizure of 82kg of cocaine on a ship visiting Newcastle has been lifted. And it all starts with a curious harbour ferry worker. Read how it all unfolded here.
Newcastle
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It was still a couple of hours before the first rays were due to pierce the cracks on Nobbys Head when the curiosity of a Newcastle Harbour ferry worker got the better of him.
The blob in the blackness of the Hunter River at 4am on January 25 appeared to be something foreign to these waters and needed further investigation.
And a flick of the torch was followed by a flick of the ferry radio to the port authority – there is a scuba diver here and he has taken off quicker than a bull shark on a school of mullet.
Nobody but a handful of police would know at the time, but prosecutors would later allege in court the shy scuba diver was one of two Norwegian nationals who had been flown into Australia with the strict brief to dig out 82kg of cocaine jammed onto the hull of the bulk carrier Stalo and transported – unbeknownst to the crew – for thousands of kilometres.
Exactly where in the world the cocaine was first secured to the ship is still being investigated and its last two stops – in Singapore and then China – are not considered the “normal” places where such operations would occur.
But wherever the cargo originated from, its destination was known, and the 229-metre, Cyprus-flagged ship had entered Newcastle Harbour from China before dawn on January 22 before being tied up at the Channel Berth on the river side of Dyke Point for a night.
However, the cops were already onto it.
By late on the afternoon of the next day, the Stalo was moved a few hundred metres towards Throsby Creek and docked at the West Basin 3 Berth.
And it was the following day – Tuesday the 24th and the day before the ferry worker’s reported sighting of the scuba diver – when police divers expertly retrieved the 82kg of cocaine from a section of the hull at GrainCorp’s terminal in the inner-city suburb of Carrington.
The berth is less than 400 metres directly across the water from Honeysuckle Drive in Newcastle West – a busy arterial road running parallel to, and one block from, the city’s iconic Hunter St.
For those who might have bothered to look, the hive of activity on the GrainCorp docks would have been attention grabbingly odd for the countless office workers, visitors and fitness freaks smashing out kilometres who utilise that part of the world.
Witnesses have told The Newcastle News that the Australian Federal Police, who led the investigation into the discovery from the NSW Police’s organised crime squad, made no effort to hide the bricks of cocaine from dock workers or anyone who wanted to have a closer look at dock next to the well-known GrainCorp silos, which are a constant focal point of the harbour when glazed in colours for special days and events, not unlike the Sydney Opera House.
But despite the operation taking place out in the open, it was not until the next afternoon that anyone began to cotton on to what should have been spruiked as a cocaine bust worth tens of millions of dollars.
And even then, it was only because of where the arrests were made – more than 10 hours after the ferry worker first raised the alarm, authorities took two men into custody near Honeysuckle Drive and not far from where some discarded scuba gear had been found earlier that morning.
As one law enforcement official would later say: “Of all the places where they happen to pinch them, it has to be out the front of NBN [News].”
The cameras catch the arrests and the scuba diving equipment. But there is no mention of the cocaine other than the now infamous and unrelated death of a scuba diver in the same harbour while attempting to retrieve drugs off another ship’s hull last year.
The following day – Australia Day – a short hearing occurs in the almost-empty Newcastle Bail Court where Norwegian men Johan-Martinius Halversen and Jon Birger Karlsen both attempt to be released on bail.
It means prosecutors need to argue parts of the case – they say it is strong and include the allegations that the pair had been flown into Queensland where expensive scuba gear had been bought before they headed to Newcastle for the pre-dawn operation.
Prosecutors also argue that the men were part of a “sophisticated” international crime syndicate.
But the men, through the defence solicitors, argue that the prosecution case is not strong, that there will be issues regarding identification when the matter goes to trial because there is a significant time period between the reported sighting of the scuba diver, police arriving back at the scene and the pair’s arrest many hours later.
In the end, the Norwegians – who have professed their innocence – had their attempts to be released into immigration detention centres rather than kept in jail knocked back and remain on remand in prison.
They are both facing a charge of attempting to possess a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug, a count which attracts a maximum jail term of life imprisonment.
And the Australian Federal Police – and their state cousins – are still not commenting on the record about the seizure other than to say two men were arrested and charged.
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