Three men arrested after 800kg of cocaine found in bulk cargo carrier berthed at Kwinana

Three men have been charged after over 800kg of cocaine was allegedly found inside a bulk cargo carrier.

The joint agency investigation started after authorities received intelligence about a plot for an illicit consignment of drugs to be dropped in the ocean off the West Australian coast in May for collection by an Australian-based syndicate.

Authorities were investigating bulk cargo carriers destined for WA ports when on May 24, Western Australia Police Force (WAPF) and Volunteer Marine Rescue WA assisted the crew of a 10m cabin cruiser in distress near Rottnest Island.

Three men were onboard the cabin cruiser, named ‘No Fixed Address’.

Law enforcement suspicions were raised after the AFP identified the cabin cruiser had been purchased using cash a day earlier, just hours before it was taken out to sea, and accounts of the trio’s trip seemed suspicious.

The men also appeared to have limited boating experience and allegedly told police they had engine trouble.

Australian Border Force (ABF) and the AFP started investigating bulk cargo vessels that were in the area at the same time the cabin cruiser was in the water.

The movements of the bulk cargo carrier, Merchant Vessel ST Pinot, were identified as potentially matching the intelligence developed by authorities.  

ABF officers boarded the vessel at sea, which had travelled from South America, last Thursday to undertake a search and interview the crew.

The vessel was taken to the Port of Fremantle and later moved to a berth located at Kwinana, where AFP, ABF and WAPF members searching the vessel found suspicious packages submerged in a water-filled ballast tank.

Royal Australian Navy clearance divers retrieved 28 large packages wrapped in blue plastic from the water and another package was found once the tank was drained.

Each of the 29 packages contained several one-kilogram blocks of a white powdered substance which forensic tests confirmed to be cocaine.

Had the drugs made it to Australian streets they could have been sold as four million individual deals (0.2g each) worth an estimated $320,000,000.

The three men who had been on the 10m cabin cruiser were arrested on Wednesday.

Two were taken into custody in Perth, while the third was arrested in Sydney as he tried to board a flight overseas.

Police will allege the trio had gone out to sea in the cabin cruiser to collect the drugs.

The men, aged 21, 25 and 29, were charged with attempting to import a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug.

The two men arrested in Perth faced court on June 1, while the third man, aged 21, is expected to be extradited from Sydney to Perth.

He is a Lithuanian national who arrived in Australia on May 16.

They face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment if convicted.

Investigations are ongoing into the alleged involvement of the crew of the cargo vessel and a search of that vessel is continuing.