Cannabis farms, kilos of cocaine, thousands in cash: Queensland’s major drug busts
Hundreds of kilos of cocaine, thousands of cannabis plants and hefty prison sentences – take a look at some of Queensland’s biggest drug busts and the people charged.
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In 2023, Queensland Police prevented 1.8 tonnes of illicit drugs from hitting the streets.
These nearly two tonnes of drugs busted by the Australian Federal Police Northern Command included the importation of 247kg of cocaine allegedly on board a yacht in Townsville and 336kg of heroin concealed inside two concrete blocks in Brendale in Brisbane, the largest shipment of the drug ever detected in the state.
It comes in a year where Queensland had the highest crime rates since 2001, with 603,321 offences recorded by Queensland Police Service – an increase of 7.3 per cent from 2022.
And while drug offences dropped by 295 year on year from 2022, 2023 still marked a big year for large drug busts.
With the Queensland Drug and Serious Crime Group, Australian Federal Police, Australian Border Force and other authoritative bodies continuing to stop the impact of large quantities of drugs over the years, take a look at some of the most major drug busts to ever come out of Queensland and the people charged with importing, producing and trafficking.
2006: TOOWOOMBA DRUG PIN SENTENCED 13 YEARS
One of the state’s biggest drug busts, Jamie William Williamson, a former Toowoomba rugby league player was found guilty of trafficking and processing speed, ecstasy and cannabis in 2010, resulting in a 13 year prison sentence.
During his trial at Brisbane Supreme Court, the court heard that Williamson had a Toowoomba drug business between 2004 and 2006, selling to wholesalers and street dealers.
In an operation named ‘Operation Delta Rosetta’, police raided two of Williamson’s storage sheds and uncovered $564,000 in cash, eight kilograms of cannabis, thousands of ecstasy tablets, two kilograms of methamphetamine and a number of firearms.
Williamson was arrested two days later at Brisbane Airport in December, 2006, after returning home from a holiday in Hawaii.
After his arrest, there was an eight-year long legal battle between Williamson and the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission to seize his cars, cash and property, resulting in $86,000 and several of his vehicles being forfeited to the state.
Williamson was declared missing in October 2021 near a Bravus work accommodation site between Clermont and Belyando in Central Queensland and in November, 2022, was reported to be suspected dead after being missing for more than a year.
READ MORE: CONVICTED DRUG TRAFFICKER SUSPECTED DEAD
2008: MILLIONS IN MARIJUANA USED TO FUND ANTI-ABORTION STANCE
One of Queensland’s largest cannabis growers, Michael Bennett Gardner Snr was handed a sentence of 13 years in jail at Brisbane Supreme Court in 2012, after growing more than $70m worth of marijuana on his 2225-hectare southern Darling Downs property to raise funds to spread his anti-abortion message.
Gardner Snr, a father of nine, was arrested in July, 2008, a day after police discovered 2.6 tonnes of harvested and dried marijuana as well as 22,000 plants on his Inglewood property named ‘Kinvarra’, along with multiple harvested fields indicating he had already processed millions of dollars of the drug.
He pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking cannabis between June 1, 2004 and December 17, 2008, and gave a 20-minute speech when he appeared before court in June, 2012, proclaiming he had no regrets and would do it again to stop the “slaughter of prenatal Australians”.
The court heard that Gardner Snr used members of his three former families, including three of his stepchildren aged between 11 and 14 to manage the sizeable crops which he would then sell in the NSW town of Nimbin while dressed up like a hippy as a disguise.
Michael Bennett Gardner Jnr was arrested alongside his father and appeared before Brisbane’s Supreme Court in December, 2011, pleading guilty to six charges including producing a dangerous drug, possessing proceeds of a drug offence and possession of a weapon.
The court heard that the then 31-year-old was a labourer on the property and was involved in the planting, harvesting and packaging of the drugs.
He was sentenced five years jail, suspended after serving 12 months after already serving 169 days in pre-sentence custody.
Gardner Snr’s daughter Rosemary Gardner appeared before Supreme Court in September, 2013 and was sentenced to four years in jail, wholly suspended, after pleading guilty to producing cannabis in excess of 500 grams between June 1, 2004 and December 17, 2008.
The court heard that Ms Gardner helped maintain and package the cannabis crop in 2007, including while she was pregnant.
Another man, Benjamin Sutherland, also pleaded guilty to producing cannabis in excess of 500 grams and was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment wholly suspended for an operational period of three years.
Another son of Gardner Snr, Kristen Gardner pleaded guilty to two counts of producing a dangerous drug, cannabis, in excess of 500 grams and was sentenced to five years imprisonment in November, 2014.
Kristen Gardner later appealed for a reduced sentence, claiming his involvement was because of his “dysfunctional relationship with his father, but was refused.
Gardner Snr appeared before court again in October, 2012 to appeal his sentence, telling the Court of Appeal that his behaviour deserved more than 13 years behind bars, with a judge arguing that he had not submitted any factors that his original sentence was “manifestly inadequate’.
READ MORE: THE MARIJUANA CROP SO BIG, THE ACCUSED ASKED FOR MORE JAIL TIME
2010: 460KG OF COCAINE FOUND AT SCARBOROUGH
One of the largest cocaine importations in Australia at the time, police seized 464kg of cocaine in 2010 after a trio transported the drugs from South America to Brisbane after spending two months at sea.
German former professional skateboarder Holger Sander and Australian nationals Simon Golding and Terrance Elfar were found guilty of importing a commercial quantity of the drug with a street value of $240m and each sentenced to 30 years in jail when they appeared before Supreme Court in 2015.
The trio each pleaded not guilty and did not give evidence during their three week trial.
The jury found that Sander’s catamaran ‘Edelweiss’ had set sail from South America in August, 2010, and sailed across the Pacific to meet Golding and Elfar on Elfar’s boat ‘Mayhem of Eden’ 320 miles offshore from Brisbane on October 8, 2010.
The Mayhem of Eden’s voyage back to Brisbane was tracked by a police boat named ‘Nemesis’ as well as by a Royal Australian Air Force plane and a Customs ship.
Four days later, Elfar’s yacht docked and AFP agents watched as Golding and Elfar came ashore on a tender with 45kg of the drugs in duffel bags which were loaded in a taxi that headed for a local shopping centre.
Golding was later arrested at a suburban intersection in Redcliffe, an hour after leaving the shopping centre.
Sander and an accomplice, Costa Rican national Gilberto Aristizabal Serna, were intercepted on sea by a Customs Ship the next day.
The more than 400kg of drugs were wrapped in black and brown tape in cubes of 10 one kilogram packages and found on the floors and in the cabinets of Elfar’s luxury yacht.
Serna – who pleaded guilty to the same charge as Golding, Elfar and Sander – was sentenced to 25 years in jail in 2013.
Golding, Elfar and Sander were sentenced in September 2015, Elfar given the harshest non parole period of 20 years, followed by Golding at 18 years and Sander at 16 years.
Golding and Elfar appealed their jail sentences and convictions in August, 2017, but were dismissed by the Queensland Court of Appeal.
In February, 2018, Sander applied for special leave to appeal over ‘constitutional issues and the legality of interrogation’ in his case which was refused based on ‘insufficient prospects’ of success.
READ MORE: TRIO GUILTY OF SMUGGLING COCAINE INTO BRISBANE
2011: $82M OF CANNABIS PLANTS LOCATED IN MACKAY
Queensland’s biggest cannabis haul of 2011, police uncovered $82m worth of cannabis on a rural property at Mt Pelion near Mackay after an investigation over a three-day period.
Operation Juliet Unearth began on August, 2011 and involved a search warrant on an uninhabited property which was being used as a site to produce more than 33,000 cannabis plants, starting from small seedlings to plants more than eight-feet high.
The search was completed over three days between October 5 and October 7 of 2011, with the tens of thousands of cannabis plants incinerated at the Farleigh Sugar Mill shortly after due to a total fire ban at the time of discovery.
As reported by the Daily Mercury in 2012, the producers of the marijuana still remained a mystery seven months after the drugs were discovered and destroyed.
2011: 300KG OF COCAINE AT BUNDABERG PORT
The country’s fifth biggest cocaine bust at the time, Bundaberg was in the headlines in 2011 when 276kg of cocaine was discovered in a yacht at Bundaberg Port in November, 2011, after the Australian Federal Police monitored the three men involved for months.
Four Spanish nationals were arrested and charged with importing or exporting a commercial quantity of border controlled drugs, including Ivan Maria Ramos Valea (25), Miguel Angel Sanchez-Barrocal (28), Jose Herrero-Calvo (39) and a fourth party who was later acquitted after spending two years in custody.
The three men and a woman, who was Ramos Valea’s girlfriend and did not know about the drugs, had sailed from Vanuatu aboard the yacht named ‘Friday Freedom’ with $185m of cocaine concealed inside the hull.
Ramos-Valea pleaded guilty to importing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug while Sanchez-Barrocal and Herrero-Calvo each pleaded guilty to a count of possessing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug.
The case concluded in November, 2013, and Ramos-Valea was sentenced 25 years jail while Herrero-Calvo was sentenced 18 years and Sanchez-Barrocal was sentenced 17 years.
After their arrest in November, 2011, the three men served 745 days in custody which was declared as time served on their sentences.
READ MORE: HOW NEWSMAIL COVERED ONE OF THE COUNTRY’S BIGGEST COCAINE BUSTS
2012: TRIO JAILED FOR ATTEMPTING TO SMUGGLE 33KG OF HEROIN
A trio of men each received hefty jail sentences after attempting to smuggle more than 33kg of pure heroin from Vietnam to Brisbane inside two wooden church altars.
Marsden man Duy Hoa Pham and Lam Hoang Tran of Greenbank each pleaded not guilty to attempting to import a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug and were found guilty after an eight-day trial at Brisbane Supreme Court.
Pham was sentenced to 12 years behind bars, and Tran was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.
A third man, Tam Minh Dang of Inala, pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to 10 years in jail over his involvement.
The Australian Federal Police had surveilled the drugs which arrived in a shipping container at the Port of Brisbane in October, 2012, aboard a vessel called ‘Kota Laju’ from Vietnam.
Authorities discovered the drugs and replaced the white powder with a fake substance which was then delivered to a Logan property via courier truck.
The agents raided the property where they found the three men who were then charged.
80 packages of heroin were found inside the wooden church altars, with a wholesale value of $10 to $20 million.
The three men each appealed their convictions and sentencing in the Court of Appeal in 2017 but were dismissed.
READ MORE: JAIL FOR WOULD-BE HEROIN SMUGGLERS
2015: CONVICTED ‘SPEED KINGS’ ORDERED TO PAY $14M TO STATE
Two Rebels ice suppliers were ordered to pay $14 million to the State of Queensland over their involvement in producing and trafficking methamphetamine between 1997 and 2003.
Michael Paul Falzon, of Ilbilbie, and James Thomas O’Brien were both given hefty jail sentences after both being found guilty for their part in what the Crime and Corruption Commission referred to as a “sophisticated commercial drug trafficking enterprise”.
O’Brien was sentenced in 2008 to 14 years imprisonment for unlawfully trafficking methamphetamine and cannabis sativa, as well as seven counts of unlawfully producing methamphetamine.
Falzon was sentenced in 2009 to 10 years jail time after being found guilty of trafficking a dangerous drug, one count of possessing and three counts of producing a dangerous drug.
They both pleaded not guilty.
During Falzon’s trial in Brisbane Supreme Court, the court heard that Falzon had made at least $1.5 million in profit, with the pair producing and trafficking the drug at various properties outside Mackay, Rockhampton and Dalby and reportedly supplying it to the Rebels Motorcycle Club.
More than five years after their sentencing, the pair were ordered to pay the state $14,051,238.56.
But in 2016, Falzon appealed this amount, which was upheld and both men were ordered to pay $7 million each, not $14 million.
In the judgment, Justice Robert Gotterson said a previous judge found the men had enough hypophosphorous acid to make 200kg worth of meth when the actual evidence showed that they had enough to make between 100kg and 310kg of the drug.
Justice Gotterson said that the finding that was made ought to have been one that was “consistent with that evidence”.
READ MORE: METH TRAFFICKERS TO PAY $7M UNDER PROCEEDS OF CRIME
2015: $14M OF COCAINE HIDDEN IN A YACHT ON GOLD COAST
Two men were convicted to more than a decade behind bars after attempting to smuggle $14m worth of cocaine into Queensland via the fibreglass hull of a luxury yacht in August, 2015.
UK citizen Martin Mayers was found guilty for one count of importing commercial quantities of a border-controlled drug after an eight day trial where the court heard that 90 packages containing 66kg of pure cocaine was seized by police on a yacht named ‘Solay’.
Estonian man Arthur Rivkin skippered the yacht and pleaded guilty to the same charge as Mayers.
The court heard that the yacht had travelled from Ecuador via Fiji and Vanuatu by Rivkin before it arrived at Coomera on the Gold Coast on August 23, 2015, where he was greeted by Mayers.
Mayers was handed a 20-year jail sentence with parole eligibility of 13 years and four months and Rivkin was handed a sentence of 16 years and 2 months with a non-parole period of 10 years and eight months.
A third man, Jordan Antic pleaded not guilty to attempting to possess $6m worth of the drug to distribute in Sydney and was sentenced to 12 years behind bars with a non-parole period of six years.
Antic appeared before the Brisbane Supreme Court again in 2019 to appeal against his conviction which was dismissed.
READ MORE: MEMBERS OF DRUG SYNDICATE JAILED FOR 10 YEARS FOR $14M COCAINE HAUL
2017: POLICE INTERCEPT ATTEMPTED $90M COCAINE IMPORT
Two Sydney-based men received jail sentences of more than 20 years after a botched attempt to smuggle more than 600kg of cocaine into Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula in a shipment of pallets of jam.
The Australian Federal Police had been monitoring Paul Michael Smith and Jeffrey John Sagar after receiving information about plans to import “liquid drugs” into Queensland from Papua New Guinea, leading to an investigation to intercept communications between Sagar and Smith.
In April, 2016, the AFP intercepted their plans to ship 300kg blocks of cocaine in a 20ft container of jam which left Peru in September, 2017, but was intercepted by an unknown third party who stole the drugs.
Police made arrests of the syndicate in Peru when a second container containing 300kg of the drug was set to hit the water, arresting multiple people in South America before making arrests and seizing evidence in Brisbane, Airlie Beach and Sydney.
Sagar and Smith were charged with conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of border controlled drugs and appeared before Brisbane Supreme Court in November, 2023, where they were found guilty after a 14-day trial.
Smith was sentenced to 26 years in prison with a non-parole period of 16 years while Sagar was jailed for 24 years with a non-parole period of 12 years.
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