How NSW Police busted massive ice shipment found on yacht
A Pom and a Kiwi told Aussie authorities they’d flown into the country for a holiday before NSW Police caught them on a yacht with half a billion dollars’ worth of the drug ice on-board.
Police & Courts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A Pom and a Kiwi told Aussie authorities they’d flown into the country for a holiday before NSW Police caught them on a yacht with half a billion dollars’ worth of the drug ice on-board.
UK national Sebastian Barnard, 35, and New Zealander Mark Bishell, 34, were arrested when officers intercepted the 50-foot La Fayette in waters off Lake Macquarie in April last year and found a massive 991kg of Mexican meth in packages in the vessel’s cabin.
The estimated value of the drugs found on the boat was $495 million if sold in points on NSW streets, an agreed fact sheet states.
Barnard and Bishell are now facing a lengthy prison stint after both pleading guilty to attempting to import a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug.
The court documents state the pair had told border officials they were in Australia to holiday when they arrived in the country on international commercial flights in the months preceding their arrests.
Bishell later texted a family member and wrote: “Back to sea (on) Monday for about 10 days … just on a cray boat”.
But, instead of embarking on a fishing expedition, the two men left Mooloolaba in Queensland and headed east to a location near Norfolk Island where they met a 57-foot yacht called the Mo‘Chuisle, a mothership which three men had sailed from Mexico with the massive amounts of ice on-board.
Neither the La Fayette or the Mo‘Chuisle had any cranes or other machinery fitted so the men worked to transfer the hundreds of packages of ice with their hands over two hours, the documents state.
Australian Federal Police later received a tip off from New Caledonian authorities, who noticed irregularities on the hull of the Mo’Chuisle which suggested it could have rubbed alongside another boat in high seas.
NSW water police intercepted the La Fayette by stealth as it approached the coast near Lake Macquarie and arrested Barnard, who is also a South African citizen, and Bishell.
Barnard told officers they had picked up the packages “just under Norfolk Island” but claimed he didn’t know what was in them, according to the documents.
Prosecutors accepted there was insufficient evidence to establish beyond reasonable doubt that Barnard and Bishell knew what drug was in the packages.
The fact sheet states Bishell has claimed he was reckless to the fact the packages contained a border-controlled-drug, but prosecutors have argued he knew the substance to be imported into Australia was a border-controlled drug.
Both men will be sentenced in Downing Centre District Court in July.
The crew of the Mo’Chuisle, two UK citizens and one US citizen, were escorted in July last year to Queensland where they were arrested and remain before that state’s courts.
NSW Police assistant commissioner Stuart Smith previously praised the boarding team who intercepted the La Fayette.
“They came up from the rear of the vessel under the horizon line and they moved into an interdicting point where the border team got onto the ship before anyone was aware that it had occurred,” Mr Smith said.
“I take my hat off to the men and women who performed that.”
Man charged with murder of baby boy
A man has been charged with murder after the death of a four-month-old baby in the state’s northwest. Here is what we know.
Read more
Splash of vino, darl?: Car thief locked up after wine text bungle
A serial offender with more than 50 prior charges broke into a popular pub and stole thousands of bucks worth of booze before foolishly texting his lady a pic – asking if she was keen for a drop.
Read more