Superyacht operator James Blee jailed over botched cocaine haul
The botched drug operation left a Brazilian diver dead, another on the run and 42 bricks of cocaine floating around Newcastle harbour. But mysteries remain even after a linchpin was jailed.
Justice finally caught up with James Blake Blee on Tuesday when the eccentric superyacht operator was handed an 11-year sentence for his role in an audacious bid to smuggle $20m worth of cocaine into Australia on the hull of a cargo ship.
It had been a botched operation that left a Brazilian diver dead, another on the run and 42 bricks of cocaine floating around Newcastle harbour.
But multiple mysteries remain: how did the other Brazilian diver escape Australia undetected, possibly with millions of dollars? Or has he been murdered, as police suspect?
Who was the blonde woman captured on CCTV helping the conspirators?
And why did police dig up a truck secretly buried on a remote bushland property more than 200 km from the scene of the crime?
When the body of Brazilian Bruno Borges Martins was discovered in the oily water of the Port of Newcastle on 9 May 2022 – drowned trying to ferry the drugs from the cargo ship to shore – the elaborate plot began to unravel.
James ‘Jimmy’ Blee had smuggled Martins, 31, and a second diver, Jhoni Fernandes Da Silva, 32, aboard a chartered yacht, Vivre, from Indonesia to Darwin two weeks before.
Blee’s website described him as a “maritime professional and dedicated marine conservationist with more than 30 years experience with luxury yachting throughout South East Asia”.
He lived in Bali, running a superyacht charter business. But during Covid the business collapsed and Blee was left without an income.
The offer of being involved in something that sounded “nefarious” was too good to pass up.
He was offered $300,000 for his role in the operation, with $200,000 paid upfront.
The 64-year-old adventurer later said he thought to himself, “how hard and nefarious can it be?”
He travelled to Dubai to meet the “gentleman” organising the operation, who told him his job would be to supply dive equipment and logistics for the operation. He told his contact he did not want to be anywhere near “the product”.
But things started going wrong almost as soon as the two Brazilians were dropped by a small tender boat on a pontoon in Cullen Bay, near Darwin.
When Australian Border Force officials boarded the Vivre, they found $US30,000 in cash, and immediately issued an infringement notice for failing to declare the money.
Another member of the operation drove the two Brazilians to Newcastle, where they checked into a hotel under a false name.
Blee trawled several dive shops with Martins and Da Silva sourcing specialised diving equipment in a $30,000 spending spree. He claimed to be working on a salvage job at Port Stephens.
At one dive shop, where he had earlier bought cylinders, he returned with a Hollis Prism II rebreather, a sophisticated closed-circuit dive equipment that “scrubs” any carbon dioxide expelled.
The rebreather stops bubbles streaming to the surface and would allow Martins and Da Silva to cross the harbour undetected. Blee asked for the cylinder to be filled with medical oxygen.
He also bought a “basic dive computer” that the store assistant warned could “not be used in conjunction with a rebreather”. He bought James Bond-style ‘seabobs’ – underwater sleds that propel a diver forward – and instructed the two Brazilians on how to use them.
Neither of his new recruits could speak a word of English. “We would sit there with their phone with a Portuguese-to-English translator,” he told police later.
“That’s why the operation went wrong on so many levels.”
The Argentinian bulk carrier Areti arrived in Newcastle on 8 May 2022, carrying toasted soybean meal – and 70 kilos of cocaine hidden in the vessel’s “sea chest” – a part of the ship that sucks up water inside to be used for cooling.
“Are you ready to do this?” Blee asked the two Brazilians, then drove them to the harbour late that same night.
At 5am the next day, Da Silva emerged from the water alone and distressed, dragging two seabobs and carrying a large sack containing bricks of cocaine.
He told Blee that Martin was missing and pleaded with him to mount a search. Da Silva handed Blee the sack of cocaine.
Not long after, Blee dropped Da Silva at his hotel, and returned to his rented apartment at Wallsend, then departed with a large black bag. The amount of cocaine in the bag is still unknown.
Police say that as Martins’ body floated in the harbour, Blee drove around the harbour three times trying to find the other package.
Martins’ body was spotted floating face down in the harbour at 9.30am.
Da Silva was dropped at an apartment in Newcastle’s Honeysuckle development, and never seen again.
Police retrieved 50kg of cocaine from the Areti’s sea chest. A substantial part of the drug haul is still unaccounted for.
Blee was arrested in Cairns two days later as he prepared to board a one-way flight to Singapore. Police found $165,000 in cash at his home, and a further $US12,000.
He boasted it had been “a fairly sophisticated” operation.
He told police: “If that kid hadn’t have died, we wouldn’t be here. Nobody would’ve known what was going on.”
By now detectives were hunting for Da Silva and for an unknown female accomplice – described as having a “thin build, about 150-160cm tall (with) a tanned complexion and blonde/grey hair”.
Police have speculated Da Silva may be dead, possibly murdered by the cartel behind the operation; others believe he has left the country.
In June this year detectives hunting for the Brazilian dug up a truck that had been buried on a bushland property in Menangle, south west of Sydney, using an excavator to unearth the crushed vehicle.
The truck and a van had been spotted travelling in tandem through Sydney the night before the operation.
The property owners knew nothing of the secret burial.
Police would only say that the aim was to “give answers to the family who wonder where their loved one has gone”.
Blee pleaded guilty to people smuggling and importing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug. A charge of manslaughter, for providing faulty dive equipment, was later dropped.
Blee’s son, James Lake-Kusviandy Blee, 21, is on bail after pleading not guilty to aiding and abetting his father to import a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug and dealing with more than $100,000 in proceeds of crime money.
On Tuesday, Blee Snr watched his sentencing proceedings via audiovisual link from a holding cell, dressed in prison greens.
Waiting for the hearing to begin, seemingly unaware that journalists were also watching the proceedings, he asked his lawyer: “Are you confident? You don’t look confident.”
He didn’t get an answer. An hour later, Judge Troy Anderson provided one.
Blee was sentenced to a total of 11 years and 3 months, with a non parole period of 7 years and six months.
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