COVER STO

Drugs that never reach the streetsThe battle lines have been drawn against organised crime and drug trafficking syndicates. Federal agents have joined forces with

other national and international law-enforcement officers to kick organised crime syndicates where it hurts. Over the past 18 months massive amounts of illicit drugs—not measured in grams or kilos but in tonnes—have been seized on their way to the streets of Australian towns and cities. In a growing global network of drugs and dirty money, organised crime bosses are discovering that

Australia’s law enforcement network is ready to take them on.

By Richard Crothers

Steering his vessel through the azure sea along the Queensland coast, the yachtsman skillfully manoeuvred his boat into the quiet backwaters off Poona, near Maroochydore, 220km north of Brisbane. It is not unusual for locals to see a sloop like The Highlander—

many craft of various sizes cruise the warm, sub-tropical waters, for adventure, for fishing or just for the sheer relaxation and tranquillity’ that sleepy areas like this provide. But locals knew “something was up ” when the sound of a helicopter and shouts broke the silence on the night of December 15 last year.

As the Customs Coastwatch helicopter hovered overhead, flooding the deck of the 20-metre sloop with searchlights, federal agents, on shore nearby, raided a makeshift camp where bags of cannabis resin were being loaded into a truck.

Throughout the night, men had been ferrying drugs from on board The Highlander to the isolated base camp where they began to load them on trucks for the trip to the next distribution point. This was no small quantity of narcotics. The haul turned out to be eight tonnes of cannabis resin worth about $64 million.

When federal agents boarded the yacht, the drug runners gave up without a struggle. On shore the traffickers were caught red-handed.The bust could not have been better planned.

Operation Molotov was an AFP-Customs operation involving more than 150 officers with assistance from the Queensland Police Service. Altogether, 15 men from the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, northern NSW, Hawaii and New Zealand were arrested for their part in a drug smuggling job that stretched half-way around the world.

In the Brisbane magistrates court it was revealed that the syndicate had aborted two previous attempts to bring in the drugs but on November 26, The Highlander had allegedly

The Highlander is taken in tow by Customs in the waters off Poona on the south Queensland coast.

left Mooloolabah, sailed east of Fraser Island and crossed the sandbar into the waters off Poona.

Some of the men who were later arrested were camped in an isolated spot just off shore. They had small boats in which they could retrieve the drugs from The Highlander.

They also had a five-tonne truck, similar to a removalist’s van, standing by to transport the cannabis to the next distribution point.

The alleged skipper of The Highlander, John Eric Ramen, 39, a boat builder of Mooloolabah, was granted bail of $250,000 with strict reporting conditions. Maximum sentence for drug trafficking is life imprisonment.

Brian Norman May, 44, a farm labourer, of Palmwoods, Qld, was bailed on a surety of $100,000 and strict reporting conditions.

The prosecution had opposed bail on the basis that he was New Zealand-born, and that radio equipment allegedly used in the drug trafficking had been found at his home.

Ronald Brannen Brown, 49, of Hawaii, made no application for bail and was remanded in custody.

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OVER STORY

Brent Edward Hillier, 48, meatworker, of Auckland, New Zealand, indicated he would apply for bail in the Supreme Court.

Bail was refused for John Alexander Roy, 31, of Bli Bli, Qld. Prosecutor David Adsett said Mr Roy was a risk because he was allegedly one of the main instigators of the importation, was based in Hawaii, held a British passport and was a frequent overseas traveller.

It was alleged there was forensic evidence linking him to the drug found on the yacht and that he oversaw the organisation of the landing party.

Other members of the syndicate were granted bail of $30,000. They were John Garrett Lambert Fowles, 40, of Buderim; Richard Burt Hughes,29, of Broadbeach; Maroochydore residents John Christopher Heenan, 37, and Brendan Lee Stagoll, 22; John William Mills, 32, of Iluka, NSW; and Sunshine Coast residents Jacob Lee Vanderlelie, 49, Gregory Bruce Hudson, 37, Graham Herbert Eaton, 35, Stephen Mark Cronin, 33, and James Leonard Jackson, 40.

Just three weeks later, on January 6, federal agents and Customs officers boarded a fishing vessel, the Southern Cross, near Port Stephens in northern NSW.

On board, stacked in the hold, they discovered a large quantity of bags containing what appeared to be cannabis resin.

Later, on shore, the drugs were weighed revealing the shipment to be more than 11 tonnes (with wrapping material)—about 10 tonnes of cannabis resin with a value around $70 million. This made the haul the biggest ever in Australia’s history.

Tiree men were arrested at the scene and were charged with importing a commercial quair.ity of cannabis resin.

Ir. a further development to the case, another ship was seized by French authorities in New Caleconia.

Tie 600-tonne Hiddensee, a former oil tanker registered in the Carribean, had been under surveillance by Customs Coastwatch aircraft for some time.

It was alleged that the drugs were transferred from the Hiddensee to the Southern Cross and two federal agents and a Customs officer flew to Nounea, with papers requesting the detention of the ship and its crew when it berthed.

As a result a further eight people were arrested. The Australian Government sought extralition of those arrested to face court over the drug mportation.

For Australian law enforcement agents, this was tie third multi-tonne haul of cannabis resin in just two months.

Officers of the French Groupe d'lntervention de la Police Nation ale storm onboard the Hiddensee (above) and arrest eight men suspected of drug trafficking.

As well as the eight tonnes of cannabis resin and the 10-tonne seizure from the Southern Cross, another five tonnes of compressed cannabis was discovered by Customs officers in a shipping container in Sydney.

In a short period more than 18 tonnes of cannabis was stopped from reaching distribution points for supplying street traffickers and users.

Law enforcement officers know that it will be a long, drawn-out war against organised crime syndicates—but the battle lines are drawn and the syndicates have found that they don’t have the free rein they may think they have.

54—March 1997 3