Court hears Gold Coast boatie Anthony Draper had ‘no idea’ cocaine on his vessel

A court has heard a boatie who allegedly tried to import more than 600kg of cocaine into Queensland says he didn’t know what was in the boxes on his vessel.

A court has been told boatie Anthony Draper had “no idea” he was transporting illicit drugs .

A boatie who allegedly tried to import more than 600kg of cocaine into Queensland claims he did not know what was inside the boxes on his vessel, a court was told.

Anthony Draper instead had offered to transport 100kg of marijuana from Sydney in return for $10,000, he told police in a statement.

The father was arrested in July last year and charged with drug trafficking.

He has spent 363 days in custody so far.

He made a bail application today in the Southport Magistrates Court which was denied by Magistrate Mark Howden who deemed Draper – who has family in Fiji – a “flight risk.”

Mr Howden said facts indicated Draper would most likely be sentenced to “many years” in jail whether his side of the story was true or not.

Anthony Draper made a bail application at Southport Magistrates Court.

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Federal prosecutor Tom Ward said Draper was aware he was transporting cocaine, took evasive action when confronted by authorities on the ocean and attempted to dump the cocaine overboard.

There was about 607kg of cocaine located, the court was told.

Defence lawyer Chris Hannay, of Hannay Lawyers, said Draper had “no idea” he was transporting illicit drugs nor the quantity of it.

Mr Hannay said “characters” threw the cocaine into Draper’s boat against his will.

“He had no idea of what was happening until it started to happen,” Mr Hannay said.

“He said ‘what the f*** is going on,’ most of it ended up in the ocean.”

The purity of the cocaine was about 75 per cent, the court was told.

Robina was put down as Draper’s proposed bail address.

Mr Howden said Draper had lived a “blameless life” and had no criminal history.

He also said Draper was likely to be sentenced to a lengthy time behind bars.

“The risk is simply too great that he would leave the jurisdiction,” Mr Howden said.

Draper’s charges have been committed to the Supreme Court.