Chilling death threat to broker who sold boat to group for alleged $1bn cocaine plot off Qld coast

Explosive court documents have revealed insight into a group’s alleged attempt to bring in $1bn of cocaine into Queensland including a chilling death threat of a broker. WATCH THE VIDEO

One of the men who brazenly tried to bring $1bn of cocaine into Queensland allegedly made a chilling threat to kill a broker who sold a boat used in the botched operation, a court has heard.

That broker is now set to be a key prosecution witness against the 11 men and two teen boys all charged with conspiracy to import cocaine over the November plot which resulted in the largest seizure of its kind in Australia.

“We kill that broker once we return,” an unnamed member of the group is alleged to have said of the broker in an encrypted “group chat” message.

The disturbing message, details of each male’s alleged role and proposed payments for the job overheard in phone taps were revealed in documents filed in Brisbane’s Supreme Court when two of the senior members of the accused drug ring applied for bail.

Members of the group who used the encrypted messaging app Threema did so using “handles” including “TonyAbbott” and “Freddy Krueger”, court documents state.

Australian Federal Police with the 2.34 tonnes of cocaine that was allegedly imported into Australia by sea. Picture: John Gass

The motley crew of 13, including a spray painter turned alleged bikie and a software salesman, were living secret double lives as members of a group plotting to smuggle 2.34 tonnes of cocaine into the country, a court has heard.

The comment about killing the broker who sold the group the True Grit, a Precision Cruiser 42 Flybridge on Boatsonline.com, was allegedly made via Threema where others discussed shootings, bashings and using guns, police claim in court documents.

The hasty purchase of the True Grit from Tin Can Bay was made after the jinxed drug syndicate’s preferred boat, the Sea Urchin V, broke down while en route from Urangan, to pick up the cocaine from a “mother ship” in international waters on November 25, police allege.

The AFP statement of facts, and phone intercepts filed in court reveal the trip was marred by misfortune and inexperience.

One of the 13 charged by the federal police.

The phone taps reveal the group allegedly lost a tinnie which came loose while they were out at sea, they had bad weather and repeated mechanical problems with their boats, and resorted to Google to search for tips on towing boats.

“The gearbox backed up on it... it shit itself. So it’s got one motor now, and they’re making us go out on one f**kin’ motor... and that’s what I’m spewing about,” Mark Sutton, who was on board the True Grit, allegedly told his mate Mark Sloan.

They also had a near-miss before picking up the drugs, with Sloan allegedly telling Sutton on November 26 that another boatie had called the police on them when they thought they were stealing fuel from a marina bowser.

The True Grit was chosen because they were trying to look like recreational boaters, police facts state.

Shay Belford - who is not alleged to have engaged in any wrongdoing. Photo: Supplied.

Spray painter Ryan Sean Givney, who lives in a rented $3m waterfront home in Cleveland on Moreton Bay with his glamorous partner Shay Belford, 32, was confirmed to be an office bearer of the Comanchero bikie gang, police alleged.

Ms Belford is not alleged to have engaged in any wrongdoing.

He was arrested at the Strathdee boat ramp in Burnett Heads on November 30 and remains in custody as his bail application was refused.

True Grit docked at the Hervey Bay marina.

Police allege they can link Givney to the plot through internet searches on his mobile phone that included “How fast can you tow a boat on water”, “Towing on water” and “Towing a boat on water”, and messages sent on an encrypted app.

On November 26, boat skipper David John Pfeffer paid $150,0000 in cash for the True Grit on behalf of the syndicate to ensure the at-sea pick-up of the cocaine, police allege in the statement of facts filed in court.

The AFP with the monster seizure.

Pfeffer was allegedly given the $150,000 cash by software salesman Andrew John Bamforth, from Springfield, near Ipswich, who travelled to Tin Can Bay with the cash so the boat could be purchased, police allege

Bamforth is later alleged to have threatened to “f**kin’ break” Pfeffer’s legs when the alleged mission to retrieve the drugs from a mothership off K’gari on November 29 and 30 was beset by problems.

Two earlier attempts to pick up the drug shipment on November 13 and November 18 were aborted due to bad weather.

The original plan was to transfer the cocaine to two tinnies close to shore at Burnett Heads, but when the True Grit broke down near the tip of K’gari and it could not make it in to Burnett Heads.

Police allege Givney was nicknamed “Monster” and “The Beast”.

They allege he was in charge of the “shore party” tasked with towing tinnies from Brisbane with one group in a hire car, and another in a four-wheel drive, to bring the tinnies to a boat ramp in Bundaberg on November 30, giving instructions via Threema.

Givney drove up to Bundaberg from Brisbane, as did another group including Nukutawhiti Matika, 28, from Heritage Park, his brother Zaquias Jack Matika, 20, car technician, from Edens Landing, Daniel Matthew Schieven, 28, from Lota, and the two 17-year olds.

But they were so unlucky that in the end, they launched the tinnies but never actually got on the water before they were arrested.

Bamforth is alleged to have “observed and directed” the transfer of equipment and supplies from the stricken first boat, the Sea Urchin V to the replacement boat named True Grit on November 26.

Bamforth is also alleged to have paid for the fuel for the True Grit and to have paid for a rigid inflatable boat hastily purchased on November 30 for $29,500.

The group of 13 allegedly expected to be paid up to $100,000 each for their role in the drug plot, phone taps reveal, and 57-year-old Mark Frederick Sutton stated they expected to be paid two weeks after the mission.

Pfeffer, who was sledged as a “f**k-up” and “bad luck” by his crewmate Sloan, hoped to get to keep the True Grit boat as his payment.

In a tapped phone call, Mark Sloan can allegedly be heard complaining about Pfeffer.

“He’s gone through three tinnies now” Sloan said.

“Wow”, Mark Sutton replies.

“It was on the back of the boat when we were way out bro, and it come off … we were out at sea,” Sloan said.

The group were well equipped with police finding a drone, a handheld GPS, infra-red camera, snorkels, head lamps and two-way radios in the Mazda used by Givney and Donald Vilaylath.

The police pounced on the evening of November 30, intercepting and boarding the True Grit off the northeastern tip of K’gari, finding the cocaine on-board with Pfeffer and Sutton.

On the same day police arrested three men -- Schieven and Marius brothers Geovanni and Riccardo - and the two teenagers who cannot be named for legal reasons, when the black LDV ute they were travelling in was stopped by police in Bundaberg East.

Images of 2.34 tonnes of cocaine allegedly imported into Australia by sea. Picture: John Gass

In that car police found purchases from boating store BCF including a life jacket, torches, fishing gloves, a fishing knife, rope and the owner’s manual for an outboard motor.

Givney works for his defacto partner Shay Belford’s vinyl installation business called “Gangster Wraps” in Slacks Creek, on the southside of Brisbane.

It repairs and refurbishes cars, motorbikes and boats.

Brisbane businessman Zaheer Mohammed, the owner of retailer Stylish Wheels, from Mount Gravatt East offered $100,000 surety to secure Givney’s release, which was not needed as he was refused bail.

Bamforth’s sister in law Sara Harding, from Collingwood Park, offered a $50,000 surety, part of the $200,000 she told the court she had in her bank account.

Givney and Bamforth are due back in Brisbane Magistrates Court on February 7.

Originally published as Chilling death threat to broker who sold boat to group for alleged $1bn cocaine plot off Qld coast