High seas seizure

Editorial: Jesse Wray-McCann

Photography: Supplied

When a Melbourne drug importation ring repeatedly botched attempts to link with a trafficking “mothership” in international waters, police investigators thought they'd lost their best chance to put the criminals behind bars.

But when the largest warship in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) fleet entered the scene, the hunt for the drug smugglers was back on via a high seas pursuit through the Southern Ocean.

For several months at the end of 2016, Victoria Police had been keeping a Melbourne drug syndicate under surveillance as part of the Victorian Joint Organised Crime Taskforce (JOCTF), which also included the Australian Federal Police (AFP), Australian Border Force (ABF) and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.

Investigators suspected the group of men were teaming with a China-based syndicate to import a significant cocaine shipment into Victoria.

An old, 50-metre Japanese whaling ship known as the Kaiyo Maru 8 had been modified to ferry the cocaine to Australia.

The Kaiyo Maru 8, dubbed the “mothership” by investigators, was due to station itself just beyond Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone, 556 kilometres south of Port Fairy, where Australia’s legal jurisdiction was more limited.

The Kaiyo Maru 8 was the trafficking "mothership" that had ferried the drugs from China to international waters just south of Australia.

Photo: Australian Federal Police

The Melbourne syndicate had organised with its Chinese counterparts to launch a boat from Port Fairy to rendezvous with the mothership in early December 2016 and then transport the cocaine back to shore.

Their first boat, although modified, was not up to the task.

Their second boat fell off its trailer and on to the road at 100km/h.

Their third boat, the Perceive, cost $100,000 in a hasty purchase off an unsuspecting Port Fairy local.

On December 4 the men set sail in the Perceive for the mothership, but rough seas and sea sickness saw them scamper back to Port Fairy after travelling only 132km.

Despite the delays, the Kaiyo Maru 8 continued to wait in international waters.

Rousing their courage for another trip, a crew of three set out on the Perceive at 1.30am on 7 December.

But their hopes of finally linking up with the Kaiyo Maru 8 were dashed when they failed to even safely navigate their way out of the harbour at Port Fairy, crashing on rocks and running aground.

The group not only abandoned the Perceive, but also their plans to secure the cocaine shipment.

Victoria Police Detective Inspector Andrew Gustke said the group’s failure to collect the drugs was a hinderance to the investigation.

“The criminal investigation on shore had hit a ceiling because these knuckleheads couldn’t get their act together to get out to the mothership,” Det Insp Gustke said.

“We probably could have got them on conspiracy charges, but we really needed the drugs to properly nail them.”

Thankfully Maritime Border Command – a multi-agency taskforce enabled by the ABF and the Australian Defence Force (ADF) - had also taken an interest in the Kaiyo Maru 8, monitoring the suspicious ship as it lurked in the waters south of Port Fairy.

The massive warship HMAS Adelaide, which was assigned to Maritime Border Command at the time, was brought in and Victorian JOCTF members boarded to set sail on a course to seize the Kaiyo Maru 8 and any drugs onboard.

HMAS Adelaide was brought in to chase down the international drug traffickers through the Southern Ocean.

Photo: Australian Federal Police

Det Insp Gustke was chosen to represent Victoria Police on the Adelaide in a liaison role with the other agencies during the mission.

In the meantime, the Kaiyo Maru 8 had given up on the Melbourne syndicate and began travelling south east, past Tasmania and deep into the Southern Ocean.

What was expected to be a three-day return mission for the Adelaide, turned into a twoweek chase through the high seas.

But it was a chase the Kaiyo Maru 8 was completely unaware of.

While the AFP legal team worked to confirm their jurisdictional authority to seize a ship in international waters, the ADF trained Det Insp Gustke and the AFP and ABF JOCTF representatives to board the ship, either by helicopter or inflatable boat.

Det Insp Andrew Gustke (far left) with AFP and ABF members on board HMAS Adelaide.

Photo: Supplied

“This had to be done covertly,” Det Insp Gustke said.

“It couldn’t be a case of just coming up alongside them, sounding the horn and saying, ‘Pull over please, driver’.

“From the positioning of HMAS Adelaide, to the helicopters, to the inflatable boats, it was all meticulously planned down to the second.”

In the early hours of 12 December, after being given the jurisdictional green light, the Australian authorities made their move.

Special forces commandos swooped in by helicopter to board and take control of the Kaiyo Maru 8.

They were followed in inflatable boats by Det Insp Gustke and the other Victorian JOCTF representatives, who were tasked with detaining the crew and seizing the drugs and other evidence.

The officers risked their lives moving from the inflatable boats onto the Kaiyo Maru 8 in very dangerous seas, but once onboard, they discovered a stash of more than 186 kilograms of cocaine, with a street value of at least $60 million.

More than 186 kilograms of cocaine, with a street value of at least $60 million, was seized as part of the investigation.

Photo: Australian Federal Police

The decision was then made to escort the seized ship and its 10-man crew to Hobart.

Det Insp Gustke, his Victorian JOCTF colleagues, ADF personnel and the detainees spent the next five nights on the Kaiyo Maru 8 in torrid and treacherous conditions.

“We didn’t have beds. We had to sleep on the floor of this putrid old ship,” he said.

“But the really scary parts were when the engine broke down, twice.

“We were told we were in danger and to get our life jackets on because a ship stopped like that in such high seas is very vulnerable to tipping over.

“The waves were so strong they had smashed through the windows of the ship’s bridge.”

They were also told conditions were such that it may have been too dangerous for the helicopters from the Adelaide to rescue them.

Having to abandon ship into the rough and freezing waters of the Southern Ocean was a potentially fatal prospect.

“At this stage we were closer to Antarctica than New Zealand, let alone Australia,” Det Insp Gustke said.

“We had come to a realisation that this was how it might end for us.”

But he said the valiant efforts of RAN engineers saw the ship’s engine repaired on both occasions.

“It was the skill and efforts of the ADF working together that brought us all home. I am so proud of our Defence Force and how they worked during this dangerous operation.”

Back on shore, the Victoria JOCTF raided properties across Melbourne and Queensland on 18 January, 2017 and arrested six men involved in the Victorian syndicate on charges of attempting to import a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug.

Victorian Joint Organised Crime Taskforce officers arrest one of the drug syndicate offenders.

Photo: Australian Federal Police

The ringleaders of the Melbourne syndicate were given prison sentences ranging between 14 years and 20 years, and the master of the mothership will highly likely be returned to China after he serves 16 years and six months (with a minimum of 10 years) behind bars.