(Tom Allard’s article from the REUTERS on October-14, 2019.)
The vessel was already at sea when, in early July
2017, Joshua Joseph Smith walked into a marine broker in the Western Australian
capital of Perth and paid $A350,000 (about $265,000 at the time) for the MV
Valkoista, a fishing charter boat. Smith, who was in his mid-40s and hailed
from the east coast of Australia, inquired about sea sickness tablets.
According to local media, he didn’t have a fishing license at the time.
After buying the boat on July 7, Smith set the Valkoista on a course straight from the marina to meet the Shun De Man 66 in the Indian Ocean, an AFP police commander said. After the rendezvous, the Valkoista then sailed to the remote Western Australian port city of Geraldton on July 11, where its crew was seen “unloading a lot of packages” into a van, the commander said.
“We knew we had
an importation. We know the methodology of organized crime networks. We know if
a ship leaves empty and comes back with some gear on it, that it hasn’t just
dropped from the sky in the middle of the ocean.”
Investigators checked CCTV footage and hotel, plane
and car hire records. The phones of some of the Australian drug traffickers
were tapped. It soon became apparent, police say, that some of Smith’s alleged
co-conspirators were members of an ethnic Lebanese underworld gang, as well as
the Hells Angels and Comanchero motorcycle gangs, known as “bikies” in
Australia.
As they put
together their deal to import 1.2 tonnes of crystal meth into Australia,
Smith's associates met with Sam Gor syndicate members in Bangkok in August
2017, according to a copy of an AFP document reviewed by Reuters. The Australians
reconvened in Perth a month later.
Bikers may have
a reputation for wild clubhouse parties and a self-styled mythology as
outsiders, but these Australians had refined tastes. They flew business class,
stayed in five-star hotels and dined at the finest restaurants, according to
police investigators and local media reports.
One of those
restaurants, said the AFP commander, was the Rockpool Bar & Grill in Perth.
The restaurant offered a 104-page wine list and a menu that included caviar
with toast at about $185 per serving.
On November 27, 2017, the Shun De Man 66 set sail
again, this time from Singapore. The vessel headed north into the Andaman Sea
to rendezvous with a smaller boat bringing the meth from Myanmar. The Shun De
Man then sailed along the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra and
dropped down to the Indian Ocean. The Indonesian navy watched and the AFP
listened.
When the Shun De Man finally met again with the Valkoista in international waters off the West Australian coast on December 19, an Asian voice could be heard shouting “money, money,” according to the commander and local media reports.
The Shun De
Man’s crew had one half of a torn Hong Kong dollar bill. Smith and his crew had
the other half. The Australian buyers proved their identity by matching their
portion to the fragment held by the crew of the Shun De Man, who then handed
over the meth.
The Valkoista arrived in the Australian port city of
Geraldton following a two-day return journey in rough seas. The men unloaded
the drugs in the pre-dawn dark. Masked members of the AFP and Western
Australian police moved in with assault weapons and seized the drugs and the
men. Smith pleaded guilty to importing a commercial quantity of an illegal
drug. Some of his alleged associates are still on trial.
Taiwan’s
Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau said it had “worked together with our
counterparts on the investigation” of the Shun De Man 66 and that this had led
to the “substantial seizure of illicit narcotics” by the Australian authorities
in December 2017.
The bureau said
it was “aware that Taiwanese syndicates have participated in maritime drug
trafficking in (the) Asia-Pacific region,” and was working “collaboratively and
closely with our counterparts to disrupt these syndicates and cross-border drug
trafficking.”
The police have
had some wins, like the 2017 busts in Shan State and the remote Western
Australian city of Geraldton where they seized 1.2 tonnes of meth and arrested
alleged traffickers. They had less luck when they raided the compound of
suspected senior syndicate member Sue Songkittikul in Thailand in December. He
wasn’t there.
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| 1.2 tons of Burmese methamphetamin caught in Western Australia. |
Meth-King Tse Chi Lop: Chinese El Chapo (Part-6)