Duo allegedly cut into shipping container floor to retrieve $120 million in cocaine

Two men accused of cutting into a shipping container at the Port of Brisbane to retrieve a stash of cocaine with a street value of $120 million will stand trial.

The alleged cocaine retrieval took place in June 2020, but the accused did not know they were being tracked and watched by police, who were also listening in on their conversations.

The cocaine haul was allegedly concealed in the floor of a shipping container at the Port of Brisbane. (File image)Credit: Glenn Hunt

In committing the duo for trial, magistrate Andrew Moloney said they would not have been in that area of the port “for fun ... unless you have a fetish for shipping containers”.

Brendan John Sipple and Jordan Roman Brennan are charged with one count each of possessing commercial quantities of imported border-controlled drugs.

Prosecutor Patrick Wilson said the pair allegedly cut their way into the container with angle grinders before cutting into the floor to retrieve the packages containing 400 kilograms of cocaine, which were then put into a wheelie bin and loaded into a van with falsified registration plates.

Wilson outlined excerpts from recorded conversations between Sipple and Brennan.

“The discussion from Brennan with Sipple was about ‘extractions’ and ‘200-300 put in a box’ and ‘too much to extract bro’ and ‘talking about 300 weighing the car down heaps bro’,” he said.

In a later discussion, Sipple was recorded saying: “I can’t believe we went in there that day with them f---ing grinders.”

Lawyer Michael Bosscher, representing one of the accused, said the Crown’s case against the pair was “not a circumstantial case, it falls well below that”.

“We have no drugs, no actual surveillance, no evidence they ever entered the container other than what they were talking about, no evidence there was cocaine in there, no evidence there was any other drug, and we have no evidence that anything was imported,” he said.

Moloney ruled the charge of possession of a border-controlled drug would proceed.

Brendan Sipple (left) leaves Brisbane Magistrates Court on Tuesday with lawyer Jason Grant (right).Credit: Toby Crockford

“The defendants were under surveillance and are placed in the general vicinity around the Port of Brisbane on the 9th, 10th and 11th of May. There are recorded conversations outlined in the statement of facts tendered by the prosecution that they rely upon,” he said.

“There is no physical evidence that they were found in possession of any actual cocaine. The grinders were found in their possession a number of months later and there was a test for cocaine being in the van.

“What is missing is any evidence that the item they may have possessed [cocaine] was imported. The surveillance puts them in the vicinity of the Port of Brisbane around that time, but one has to infer that they were there for some nefarious purposes.

“Where they are going, there are shipping containers, and it is not a common place someone might go to for some other purpose … I accept that it is unlikely that unless you have a fetish for shipping containers, one would be in that area for fun.”

The cases against both men will continue in the Brisbane Supreme Court in coming months.