Gold Coast cocaine: Rise and rise of the drug in the city over the years

It continues to be a plague on the city but where did Gold Coast’s dangerous love affair with cocaine begin? In our special report we dive inside the seedy world. FULL REPORT >>>

• Exposing Gold Coast drug dealers and traffickers
• COURT AND CRIME WRAP:  Week that was on the Gold Coast

SIXTEEN men are suspected of controlling almost all the cocaine, heroin and MDMA trafficked to Australia, branded global top tier criminals with elaborate offshore networks moving drugs and money in the billions of dollars.

The startling details, part of the Bulletin’s Powderkeg series, emerge as we delve inside Gold Coast’s own wicked history with cocaine.

These are the city's cocaine stories as told at the time.

JANUARY 6, 1984

QUEENSLAND police rejected claims of widespread cocaine trafficking in Queensland.

Police were commenting on statements made by Mr Joe Lamberti, the director of Odyssey House, a Melbourne drug rehabilitation centre.

Mr Lamberti said the use of cocaine in Australian had reached the same proportions as it had in the United States.

The drug was being imported mainly from South America to Queensland, particularly the Gold Coast, and was filtering down to the southern states, he said.

“More and more people are using it and it is now easily available in Australia,’’ he said from Melbourne.

Mr Lamberti admitted he had no hard facts to substantiate his claims. He had based his comments on information from addicts who came to Odyssey House.

Cocaine was commonly mixed with heroin to make a “speedball’’, he said. This was cheaper and more accessible to the average user than pure cocaine which was expensive.

“It is an elite drug used by people as a recreational pursuit. That is why it is common on the Gold Coast,’’ he said.

“But it is becoming more popular and socially acceptable because people think it is a harmless drug.

“It is not physically addictive like heroin but it can have profound mental effects,’’ he said.

Insp. Roy Graves, of the Gold Coast police, said there was no evidence to substantiate claims of an increase in cocaine usage or trafficking on the Gold Coast.

“We have no doubt people are using cocaine on the Coast but it is hard to detect. It seems to be used by a more affluent section of people who keep it to themselves,’’ Insp. Graves said.

OCTOBER 27, 1985

MEMBERS of the Gold Coast’s yachting fraternity have been accused of acting as pushers for Australia’s burgeoning cocaine market.

Drug users in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast spoke of cocaine pick-ups near marker buoys adjacent to Queensland resort islands and sometimes only a short distance from the Southport Bar.

“I was in a yacht race recently when one boat dropped out to pick up plastic bags at a pre- arranged destination,’’ one former crew member said.

“Cocaine is the trendy drug in such circles. I’ve been to dozens of parties on board different yachts where coke bowls and straws are part of the established scene.

“”Of course not all yachties are into it – just a certain type.

“It’s easy to have a party on board a boat because you can be certain of not being disturbed.

“If a stranger should come alongside, the coke is simply thrown overboard with a weight or tied to the anchor line until the coast is clear again.

“The Gold Coast and resort islands are natural areas for a flourishing coke trade. It goes with the carefree holiday image.

“You can take it from me that at least half of the Gold Coast’s big businessmen have coke or alcohol problems.

“You can get cocaine and heroin from prostitutes, from most of the bars, and from some restaurants in the city.”

JANUARY 8, 1989

FEARS that the Gold Coast is becoming the Cocaine Coast of Australia are causing the Federal Police to set up a special drug investigation unit at Coolangatta.

The unit will be in addition to the Federal Police drug intelligence squad already operating.

The acting director of information, Mr Brian Minnards, says the availability of cocaine on the coast has increased.

Three Federal Police officers were assigned to the area last May and another three will be sent to assist them.

Local police set up their own criminal intelligence unit at the end of the year to pinpoint and combat organised crime.

Drug dealing and trafficking are a target.

The police crackdown follows widespread alarm that the Gold Coast is becoming a drug mecca for Australia.

Investigations have discovered that cocaine and the new trendy synthetic drug, Ecstasy, can be as easy to buy in the tourist centre as zinc cream and tinnies.

Mr Minnards said the past six months had seen a major increase in the number of drug arrests on the coast.

“The theory is that it is happening because it is a tourist area and with all the building going on there is plenty of money available to indulge.

“It spreads right down to Ballina.’’

JANUARY 21, 1989

FEDERAL authorities were concerned at the increasing use of cocaine in Australia, a court was told.

Seizures of cocaine had more than tripled in Australia in the past two years, the Brisbane Supreme Court was told.

The figures were given during the sentencing of a Newcastle man arrested with cocaine worth almost $250,000 hidden in a gift-wrapped box of chocolates.

Jeffery David Chitty, 32, commercial diver, pleaded guilty to possessing 120.7g of pure cocaine at Broadbeach Waters after December 21.

The prosecutor, Mr Paul Rutledge, said federal police were searching the premises of an alleged cocaine dealer when Chitty telephoned the unit.

Chitty arrived with a gift-wrapped box of chocolates. Hidden under a layer of sweets were 12 bags of cocaine.

Mr Rutledge said cocaine was being sold in the street for $250-$300 a gram and if further “cut’’ the drug could retail for almost $250,000.

Chitty told police he had been offered $2000 to deliver the box from Newcastle. He had been given the package by a girl at Newcastle railway station and had come to the Gold Coast by bus.

Seeking a heavy sentence, Mr Rutledge said there had been 17 seizures of cocaine involving 10 people and 2485.9g in 1987. This had risen to 53 seizures involving 35 people and 6395.1 grams in 1988.

Mr Justice Connelly said Chitty had previously been jailed for three years in Noumea on a similar charge involving 230g of cocaine.

He sentenced Chitty to seven years’ jail and ordered he serve a minimum of four years.

OCTOBER 19, 1989

A MAN alleged to be the Gold Coast’s biggest cocaine distributor committed suicide in his jail cell while awaiting trial, Brisbane’s Supreme Court heard.

The Crown prosecutor, Peter Smid, told the court about Raymond William Hanley during the sentencing of Sean Torben Agerby, 28, of Broadbeach, who pleaded guilty to a charge of supplying cocaine.

Mr Smid said Hanley left the country after being arrested with Agerby in May 1988, but was arrested when he returned to carry out a murder plot against his second wife.

Hanley committed suicide after the plot was discovered, Mr Smid said.

Mr Justice Kelly sentenced Agerby to four years’ jail with a recommendation he be paroled after 18 months.

NOVEMBER 27, 1991

A GOLD Coast man found with almost 30kg of cocaine worth about $5.5 million wept in the dock as he was sentenced to a minimum of six years in jail.

Mr Justice McInerney sentenced Adrian Bahhouri, 47 of Nerang, to a maximum of eight years’ imprisonment, with a non-parole period of six years, for possessing a commercial quantity of cocaine.

Bahhouri pleaded guilty to the charge.

The NSW Supreme Court was told he collected a wooden crate at Australian customs on February 15 1990, which had been imported from Panama and took it to a garage in Sydney.

The next day he removed 12 wooden struts, which had been hollowed out to hide about two packets of cocaine each.

He was to have been paid $25,000 for his role but was arrested by police, who had him under surveillance after Customs officials discovered the cocaine.

Mr Justice McInerney said Bahhouri was unemployed, had moved to Queensland and needed money, which made the prisoner “vulnerable”, but did not excuse his behavior.

The judge dated the sentence from February 20 1990, when Bahhouri was taken into custody.

Exposing Gold Coast drug dealers and traffickers

JULY 17, 1992

A COLOMBIAN businessman, described by a Brisbane judge as probably an agent for an international operation, was jailed for 12 years on cocaine smuggling.

Mr Justice Glen Williams told the Supreme Court that Jorge Enrique Bolanos-Moreno, who had previously been deported from America after having served a long term for cocaine smuggling, had embarked on a life of international crime and should be punished accordingly.

Mr Justice Williams said he considered another Colombian co-accused restaurateur Luis Guillermo Forero-Forero was only a courier and jailed him for eight years.

The judge said the sentences had to be seen as a deterrent to foreign nationals who saw profit in importing and distributing hard drugs in Australia.

Bolanos-Moreno, 47, partner in a construction products company and Forero-Forero, 46, restaurant owner, both of Bogota, Colombia, pleaded guilty to having possessed cocaine at Southport and Tweed Heads on September 24, 1991, and having been knowingly concerned in the importation of prohibited drugs between August 7 and September 24.

Federal prosecutor Mr Frank Walsh told the judge post office boxes were opened in false company names at Southport, Tweed Heads and Beenleigh in May last year.

He said Bolanos-Moreno arrived on July 6 and booked into a Surfers Paradise unit.

Forero-Forero had flown into Australia on August 7 and joined Bolanos-Moreno on the Gold Coast.

Federal Police intercepted eight letters from Florida to the Southport and Tweed Heads boxes. They contained cocaine with a street value between $150,000 and $300,000, Mr Walsh said.

Justice Williams said it was clear the men had come to Australia for the sole purpose of distributing cocaine in Australia.

SEPTEMBER 14, 1993

A GOLD Coast drug dealer, who sold LSD, amphetamines, cocaine and marijuana to an undercover police officer, was sentenced to three years’ jail.

Paul Hoff, 36, of Chevron Island, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court in Brisbane to trafficking dangerous drugs.

Prosecutor Peter Ridgeway said Hoff sold drugs worth $11,390 to an undercover officer.

Parole was recommended after 18 months.

OCTOBER 9, 1996

THE kingpin of a major Gold Coast drug ring was sentenced to 14 years’ jail.

In the Supreme Court, Justice John Dowsett heard details of how Raymond Mark Jacobs lived the high life while ruling his drug empire with a rod of iron.

Jacobs, 33, of Surfers Paradise, pleaded guilty to trafficking drugs on the Gold Coast between January 1992 and October 1995.

Prosecutor Ross Martin said Jacobs ran a sophisticated operation dealing in heroin, amphetamines, ecstasy and cocaine.

He said Jacobs incorporated a smaller operation which distributed drugs in nightclubs.

Mr Martin said Jacobs had facilities to manufacture amphetamines and had ordered a machine

to make pills. He had spent $16,000 buying chemicals for amphetamine manufacture shortly before being arrested.

Mr Martin detailed some of the incidents which he said showed violence was part of the way Jacobs ran his business:

• Jacobs threatened a debtor with a razor and later bent the same man’s fingers with pliers.
• When an assistant turned on a light by accident and destroyed $10,000 in ecstasy tablets, Jacobs took the man’s brother’s car as compensation.
• Jacobs boasted to an undercover policewoman, whom he met in a gym, that he would bash anyone who tried to cheat in a drug deal.
• Jacobs was arrested in October 1994 after firing a gun at a car in Surfers Paradise when a drug deal had apparently gone wrong.

Mr Martin said a search of Jacobs’s car, shed and apartment revealed drugs (heroin, cocaine, amphetamines), documents, ledgers and invoices for chemicals.

Jacobs was arrested again in December 1994 and again in September 1995.

A total of 26 grams of heroin, 14 grams of cocaine and nine grams of amphetamines were found on him or his property. He also had more than $102,000 in bank accounts he could not properly explain and a further $78,000 in cash was recovered from his associates.

Justice Dowsett imposed a 14-year jail term without a recommendation for early parole.

Raymond Mark Jacobs.

MARCH 14, 1997

A GOLD Coast businessman turned to the cocaine trade after he paid a divorce settlement of $140,000, Brisbane Supreme Court has been told.

Florin Luke Neascu was found with more than 300g of pure cocaine - one of the biggest amounts of cocaine ever found on one person in Queensland.

The court was told Neascu was greatly affected by his marriage break-up in September 1995.

Neascu faced a $140,000 cash bill as part of the settlement, the court was told.

Justice Glen Williams said Neascu was unwilling to cover costs by taking a loan against his successful key cutting and shoe repair chain.

“Instead you became an intermediary between another Romanian and street sellers for cocaine,’’ Justice Williams said.

Neascu pleaded guilty to supplying cocaine at Nerang and possessing cocaine at Surfers Paradise, on December 15, 1995.

Justice Williams said the street value of the cocaine seized was close to $200,000.

He sentenced Neascu to six years jail with a recommendation for parole after two years.

NAMED: 16 people charged over national raids

JUNE 11, 1997

A FORMER Qantas steward involved in importing cocaine into Australia was jailed for seven years by the Supreme Court in Brisbane.

David Francis Callaghan took the stand in his defence, saying he was a “middle man’’ rather than a principal in a plan to bring 191.976g of pure cocaine into Australia.

But Justice Des Derrington said he did not have any problems in rejecting Callaghan’s claim because it was at odds with police interviews.

Callaghan, 47, of Sorrento on the Gold Coast, pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine and cannabis sativa, and to supply of cocaine in July 1996.

Prosecutor Adrian Donaldson said Callaghan was detected in a Sydney police undercover operation.

He said Callaghan bought $30,000 of cocaine in Honolulu and arranged for a man to bring it into Australia.

Callaghan went to Sydney to sell some of the cocaine and, on his return, police raided his home.

Callaghan told the court he had been drunk when police interviewed him and had made statements which were not true.

Justice Derrington said Callaghan had been engaged in a filthy trade, and the crime affected the whole community.

Justice Derrington jailed Callaghan for seven years with an early recommendation for parole after two years.

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COURT AND CRIME WRAP:  Week that was on the Gold Coast

FEBRUARY 24, 1998

A GOLD Coast mother of five children was jailed for five years on drug trafficking and perjury charges arising from the Criminal Justice Commission’s Carter inquiry.

The Brisbane Supreme Court heard Cynthia Ann McKnight sold cannabis sativa and cocaine to help pay her way through a psychology arts degree at Griffith University.

McKnight also was the “conduit’’ for a former policeman to approach a Gold Coast detective to give protection to a drug dealer, the court heard.

McKnight later gave false evidence to the Carter inquiry into police involvement in the drug trade and was charged with perjury.

McKnight, 45, pleaded guilty to eight charges of drug trafficking, corruption, perjury, and supplying cannabis and cocaine between January 1, 1994 and April 13, 1997.

The Crown submitted that McKnight had provided cannabis and cocaine to a CJC agent posing as a “drug dealer’’.

Barrister Peter Nolan, for McKnight, said she had previous convictions for shoplifting but had decided to start a new life, enrolling at the Gold Coast campus of Griffith Uni.

Justice Ken MacKenzie said perjury and corruption were serious crimes. He sentenced McKnight to five years’ jail with a recommendation for parole after 15 months.

Cynthia McKnight

JUNE 9, 1999

A GOLD Coast drug trafficker was jailed for supplying cocaine.

The Brisbane Supreme Court heard Anthony George Kirswani, 32, supplied cocaine and LSD on the Gold Coast between March 13 and September 26, 1997.

The court heard how Kirswani had hidden his “stash of drugs” in bushland at Currumbin.

Kirswani pleaded guilty to trafficking and was sentenced to eight years’ jail with a recommendation for parole after two-and-a-half years.

FEBRUARY 10, 2001

A CONTROVERSIAL Gold Coast Bulletin crime and punishment survey has indicated more than 30 per cent of the city’s residents have been approached by drug pushers and 40 per cent of respondents have smoked marijuana.

Almost 1500 readers responded to the extensive two-page survey.

Nine per cent of those polled said they had taken hard drugs such as ecstasy, LSD and amphetamines, 7 per cent said they had taken cocaine and 3 per cent admitted to using heroin.

A Drug Arm spokesman described the results of The Bulletin survey as ‘pretty startling’.

“You have to think about what kind of availability is out there if that many people have tried such a range of drugs,” he said.

However, Gold Coast Drug Council president Sean Cousins said he was ‘sadly not surprised’ by the results.

Mr Cousins said drugs were rampant on the Coast and more and more youngsters, some as young as 10, were experimenting and becoming hooked.

“Drugs are open slather here,” he said.

“Because of its leisure and tourism-oriented lifestyle, the Coast is far more vulnerable to drugs than most places in the country.

“The tragedy is that young people are growing up in a city in which a drug culture is becoming more entrenched.”

NOVEMBER 14, 2001

A DANGEROUS new drug cocktail is set to hit the Gold Coast ahead of Schoolies Week.

Crank, a potentially fatal mixture of cocaine and amphetamines or heroin, is expected to be on sale at Schoolies celebrations.

Teenagers are being warned to stay away from the drug, which has unknown side-effects and could prove fatal, especially when combined with alcohol.

Crank sells for between $50 and $100 for up to three hits and can be injected, snorted or smoked.

The cocktail is being sold in Brisbane, and will soon be on the Gold Coast as dealers prepare for the rush of schoolies.

Judith Hart from drug support agency Drug-Arm said the small percentage of schoolies looking to experiment with drugs should stay away from the combination.

``This particular new drug is of concern and we are warning schoolies who may be considering experimenting with new substances to steer clear,’’ she said.

``We don’t know a lot about crank but we believe in certain circumstances it could be lethal, particularly when mixed with alcohol.’’

A spokesman for the Brisbane support group Queensland Intravenous Aids Association said they had also noticed the arrival of crank on the local scene.

DECEMBER 14, 2004

A FORMER Gold Coast restaurateur involved in an international drug syndicate that tried to import 12kg of cocaine into Brisbane had already been jailed in NSW for cocaine-related offences.

In the Supreme Court in Brisbane, Francis Ignacio Burns, 46, was jailed for 18 years after pleading guilty to a charge of conspiracy to import cocaine between January 6 and April 17, 2002.

Four other men were acquitted of the same conspiracy charge on November 12 this year after a four-week trial.

The jury convicted a fifth defendant, property renovator and jeweller, Ronald Keith Isherwood, 50, of Minyama. He appeared in the dock with Burns at the sentencing and was also given an 18-year term, but with a nine-year non-parole period.

Burns wiped away tears as Justice Philippides also sentenced him to separate 12-month terms for acting with intent to dishonestly obtain a gain from the Commonwealth and unlawfully supplying cocaine to another person on the Gold Coast between September 25, 2003 and January 22, 2004.

The court was told those offences - committed while Burns was on bail for the conspiracy charge - related to several meetings he had with a federal undercover police officer.

Justice Philippides said while Burns’ counsel submitted his guilty plea entitled him to a sentence discount, regard had to be given to his previous conviction for attempting to possess 112.9g of cocaine held in a safety deposit box in Sydney.

DECEMBER 6, 2006

ONE of the Gold Coast’s major drug suppliers has been sentenced to eight years’ jail and declared a serious violent offender.

Leslie Ronald Saunders, 40, led a sophisticated international drug operation which included trafficking methamphetamines and trying to import pseudoephedrine from the Philippines to the Coast.

He was also in charge of supplying large quantities of cocaine, ecstasy, date-rape drug GHB and cannabis.

On December 5, 2006 Saunders, a former Richmond AFL player, was sentenced on 11 drug charges in the Supreme Court, in Brisbane.

Because he was declared a serious violent offender he will have to serve 80 per cent of his sentence.

Saunders has been in jail since August, 2005, after being deported from the Philippines, where he fled to escape other drug charges including conspiracy to import 1.5 tonnes of pseudoephedrine, which is used to produce amphetamines.

He was sentenced in the Southport District Court for his role in the importation.

Crown prosecutor Belinda Merrin said Saunders was arrested during a 2004 Customs, federal and state police drug investigation named Operation Latvia. She said that in February, 2004, through phone taps, police discovered Saunders had about $500,000 worth of ecstasy tablets at a home on the Coast.

In sentencing, Justice Ken Mackenzie said it was obvious Saunders was a major distributor of drugs, particularly ecstasy.

JANUARY 31, 2007

A GOLD Coast man who was a major player in some of the state’s largest drug deals will spend at least a decade in jail after pleading guilty in the Supreme Court in Brisbane.

The court was told that Jim Nabhan, 34, helped to source and deliver millions of dollars of ecstasy, speed, cocaine, ice and fantasy over many months, ending with police raids on the Gold Coast in October, 2002.

He pleaded guilty to trafficking four types of drugs and two counts of possessing ecstasy and speed in 2004 while on bail for trafficking.

Crown prosecutor Brendan Campbell said the case was hard to compare because it involved the largest known drug seizures at the time including 5kg of cocaine with a street value of $3.3 million.

In just three months from July, 2002, police intercepted about 10,000 phone calls to and from Nabhan’s six phones, most about drug deals as part of a National Crime Authority operation focused on major trafficking on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane.

Police seized numerous drugs bound for the Gold Coast market including 14,000 ecstasy pills and almost 1kg of high grade crystal methylamphetamine or ice.

Justice Martin Moynihan said Nabhan was an `essential cog’ in an “opportunistic, extensive and robust organisation”.

“It is impossible to know the full nature and extent of your operation,’’ he said.

He sentenced Nabhan to 13 years in jail for trafficking, of which he must serve 80 per cent.

Nabhan was also sentenced to 12 months’ jail for each of the possession charges, to be served concurrently.

JUNE 1, 2007

A FOREIGN university student and a man from New Zealand have both been jailed for trying to move more than $1.6 million worth of cocaine through the Gold Coast.

Glen Christopher Cook, 31, was given a head sentence of almost nine years’ jail in the Queensland Supreme Court.

He had pleaded guilty to one count each of attempted possession of a commercial quantity of cocaine and possession of a commercial quantity of gammabutyrolactone (GBL or liquid ecstasy).

Norwegian-born Eskil Honore Gundersen, 25, also pleaded guilty to attempted possession of a commercial quantity of cocaine, and received a sentence of seven years’ jail.

The court was told both men committed the offences in early 2006.

The court was told Customs officers intercepted a package containing almost 3kg of cocaine with a street value of about $1.6 million on March 10, 2006, which they substituted with an inert substance.

Cook organised to collect the package with a friend and took it back to his Gold Coast apartment, where he was subsequently arrested.

Glen Christopher Cook

AUGUST 7, 2007

A GOLD Coast man who was part of a million-dollar drug syndicate for “just a few hours” has been sentenced to seven years’ jail.

Jolyon Robert Davies, 34, teamed up with a Bond University honours student and a New Zealand national to move almost 3kg of cocaine around the Gold Coast.

Davies, a security guard, was asked by Glen Christopher Cook, 31, of New Zealand to pick up a package from the TNT depot at Molendinar on March 16.

Davies knew the package contained cocaine and sought the help of his unwitting brother who picked up the package hidden in a metal transformer.

He then drove to a Southport unit complex to meet his brother and Cook.

The trio didn’t know Customs and Australian Federal Police had intercepted the package on its arrival from Columbia and swapped the 75 per cent pure cocaine for a harmless substance.

The police followed Davies’ brother to the TNT depot and then to the Como Street unit complex where officers nabbed them in the basement.

They found the 2.9kg package in a locked storage cage.

Davies told police he expected to get a quarter of an ounce of cocaine, which he assumed would be worth $2000, for delivering the drugs.

Yesterday during a special sitting of the Supreme Court at Southport, Davies pleaded guilty to attempted possession of a commercial quantity of a cocaine.

Chief Justice Paul de Jersey sentenced Davies to seven years’ jail with a non-parole period of two years and six months.

Cook was ordered to serve eight-and-a-half years’ jail with a non-parole period of two years and 10 months and Gundersen was sentenced to seven years’ jail to serve two years four months when they were sentenced in Brisbane in May.

MARCH 7, 2008

A GOLD Coast man caught on tape boasting about earning $40,000 a month selling cocaine was sentenced to 15 years’ jail for drug trafficking.

With no real job, yet thousands of dollars flowing through his hands, Cele Markovski, 52, was sentenced as a major cocaine trafficker who was `high up the totem pole’ and also a large ecstasy trafficker between July, 2003, and March, 2004.

His former partner, Danica Jovic, 35, was sentenced to four years’ jail for possession of about 500g of high-grade cocaine found in the couple’s car when police intercepted them at a Currumbin service station on March 18, 2004.

The pair, who lived at The Sovereign Islands, faced trial in the Supreme Court in Brisbane. 

The discovery of the cocaine, hidden inside a falsely-marked caustic soda tub and then placed in a nappy bag, came at the end of a long police operation which had tapped Markovski’s phones for months.

Although the cocaine stash was serious, being worth close to $1 million on the street, it was the phone taps and Markovski’s talk of mega drug deals worth millions more that saw him sentenced as a trafficker as well as for drug possession.

Markovski was to serve at least 80 per cent of his sentence before being eligible for parole while Jovic had to serve at least two years.