Man charged in QLD over cocaine stash found at Port of Newcastle

A man has been charged in Queensland after more than $20m of cocaine was found — and a dead drug mule discovered nearby — at the Port of Newcastle.

A man has been charged in North Queensland as police investigate the discovery of a $20 million cocaine stash and a dead diver at the Port of Newcastle.

Inquiries led by Organised Crime Squad detectives saw officers from AFP and Queensland police arrest James Blake Blee, 62, on Wednesday as he tried to board a plane to Singapore about 5:30pm.

He was taken to Cairns Watch House and charged with importing large commercial quantities of a border controlled drug and a large commercial drug supply.

Detectives from the crime squad are travelling to Queensland later today to seek permission to bring the man to NSW when he appears at Cairns Magistrates Court.

On Monday morning, workers found an unconscious diver floating in the water at Kooragang 2 Berth at the Port of Newcastle near a large waterproof sack of cocaine.

A police diver at the Port of Newcastle on Tuesday morning. Picture: Peter Lorimer

Police divers suiting up to investigate the scene. Picture: Peter Lorimer

He was wearing a Sharkskin scuba wetsuit and a high-end rebreather.

Paramedics performed CPR on the man but he died at the scene.

Police believe the man, who has since been identified as a foreign national, was a drug mule attempting to retrieve about 50kg of cocaine, which has an estimated street value of more than $20 million, from the inside of the hull of the Areti. Gr Majuro cargo ship.

It is believed the diver and some of his criminal counterparts got some of the drugs ashore before the man’s death.

Australian Federal Police and Australian Border Force are assisting NSW Police in their investigation, with one source saying it is not believed the diver arrived in Australia on the ship from Argentina, but rather had been based in NSW for some time doing similar diving jobs for criminal syndicates.

“It (the cocaine) was hidden in the sea chest, it’s a part of the ship that sucks up water inside to be used for cooling,” one officer said.

Police divers searching the waters near the boat’s hull. Picture: NSW Police

“We think this was this man’s job and he’s done it before, it definitely wasn’t their first time.”

An empty “bail”, used to carry the cocaine blocks out of the ship, was found along the Hunter River on Tuesday.

The Areti. Gr Majuro docked at the Port of Newcastle about 5.30pm on Sunday, completing its voyage of more than a month from Argentina.

Less than 12 hours later members of a crime syndicate were pulling up alongside the ship, one of them decked out in scuba diving gear, as they attempted to recover the cocaine attached to the vessel below the surface.

The drug mule drowned while trying to smuggle an estimated more than 50 kilograms of cocaine to shore near the Port of Newcastle. Picture: NSW Police

Police remove the diver’s body from the water. Picture: NSW Police.

During the smuggling effort the diver suffered complications and died, with his counterparts leaving both him and a waterproof sack of cocaine behind.

NSW Police Organised Crime Squad boss Rob Critchlow said they believed the drowned diver was part of a syndicate who knew what they were doing, and when things went wrong he was “left for dead” by his criminal counterparts.

“This was a well drilled professional group, comfortable doing what they were doing,” Detective Superintendent Critchlow said.

“(They were) comfortable sending drugs on a ship across the world to get in and target our community here in Australia, so they knew exactly what they were doing.”