Mostafa Baluch’s escape route out of Australia to Europe revealed

Police intelligence suggests accused drug kingpin Mostafa Baluch had plans to meet up with an exiled drug lord if he had pulled off a complex getaway plan.

Accused drug kingpin Mostafa Baluch was planning to sail from far north Queensland to Indonesia and then across to Thailand, before finally taking a flight to eastern Europe to see powerful crime friends.

But Baluch’s efforts to flee the country came unstuck about 1am on Wednesday when the truck he was hiding in was stopped at the NSW and Queensland border checkpoint.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal police intelligence suggests had Baluch made it across the border he was set to travel by sea to Asia, before finally catching a plane to the Balkans where he has a number of high-profile underworld pals, chief among them exiled drug lord Vaso Ulic.

“If he got overseas it would have been years and millions of dollars before we got our hands on him again,” one senior police source said.

Mostafa Baluch was arrested early on Wednesday morning hiding inside a truck trying to cross the NSW-Queensland border.

Baluch skipped bail last month.

“Once in Asia he could have island hopped and then gone on to the Balkans to see Ulic and other rich and powerful figures, so it’s very good police work by all involved to get him before it was too late.”

The Baluch breakthrough was a major relief for NSW Police who had been left to pick up the pieces after Magistrate Michael Crompton’s decision to grant him bail last month on charges of importing $270 million of cocaine from Ecuador.

Police Minister David Elliott called Baluch’s return to custody “a great day for policing in Australia”, while also apologising to the overseas forces who initially helped to arrest him on the drugs charges.

From the outset after his escape, police vowed to crackdown on Baluch’s friends, family and associates.

Police feared Baluch would meet up with exiled drug lord Vaso Ulic. Picture: Supplied

This Bentley was among the items seized from Mostafa Baluch after his escape.

Police said while targeting those close to him in the 16 days he was on the run, Baluch became “hot” among the criminal underworld, leading to much intelligence being received.

Raids last week on safe houses in Potts Hill and Yagoona where Baluch was confirmed to have spent time had police confident they were close.

When solid intelligence came through on Tuesday that he may be planning to move north in a truck, officers manning the Queensland and NSW border were put on high alert.

After checking dozens of trucks, a haulage vehicle carrying a shipping container with unsecured twist locks whose driver allegedly did not have a log book intrigued officers.

When an officer knocked on the side of the white shipping container and someone else knocked back, they knew they were on the money.

Inside was a dark grey Mercedes SUV and in the back seat was a freshly shaven, and bald headed Baluch.

Body-worn video from one of the officers shows the wanted man walking out and being placed in handcuffs as officers yell: “armed police … hands up, step away from the car”.

NSW Police led the investigation but loudly praised the team effort between them and other agencies such as the Australian Federal Police, Australian Crime Commission and Queensland Police.

Police sources said the manhunt that unfolded over the two weeks he was on the run would have cost the taxpayer a minimum of $400,000.

Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith said the efforts of the Organised Crime Squad officers and their boss Rob Critchlow, who worked around the clock to track down Baluch, would have been in vain if not for the diligence of police at the border checkpoint.

“We have thrown everything at it, human resources, intelligence, international agencies, technologies from multiple agencies, that has brought us to the position of this apprehension,” Ast Comm Smith said.

“We can only keep thanking the constable who tapped on the side of the particular truck in question and obviously received an acknowledgment that there was an individual inside … we all started celebrating.”

Baluch vanished 72 hours after being granted bail by Magistrate Crompton in Central Local Court on October 22.

Suspected drug dealer Mostafa Baluch was allegedly attempted to be smuggled out of NSW in a container being transported by Kit Bros. Picture: Richard Dobson

Facing life sentences on charges of importing and also conspiring to import a commercial quantity of cocaine, Baluch’s release from custody infuriated police and police prosecutors.

They had argued in court that he was a risk of fleeing and despite having to report to police daily, he was required to put up a $4 million surety and wear an ankle tracking bracelet.

Federal police helped provide the final piece of information to NSW cops which led them to Baluch, saying the lesson they had learnt from Operation Ironside – where police infiltrated an encrypted messenger app called ANOM – had been useful.

“It was information we provided as a result of our high end capabilities that led to the discovery of him in that container,” said AFP Commander Brett James, head of Operations and Support, said.

Baluch’s lawyer Nicholas Andrews at the Southport Magistrates on the Gold Coast on Wednesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Comm James would not detail what the information or technology was that they used to help NSW Police but said wrongdoers should “be very worried about the work that the AFP is doing.

“I would be looking over my shoulder and I would be thinking about the fact that everything I’m using, every device I am using may be compromised in some fashion.”

With Baluch in custody at Southport Watchhouse, NSW Police officers travelled north to Queensland to make an application in court for his extradition on Thursday.

When the extradition is granted, Baluch – who cannot fly because he is unvaccinated – will then be placed in the custody of correctives services who will drive him back to Sydney in what is expected to be one of the most highly secured convoys the nation has ever seen.