Australian Olympic silver medalist Nathan John Vagary and his younger brother were convicted of attempting to smuggle $ 200 million worth of cocaine into Australia.
World champion kayaker Nathan, 45, and brother Dru Anthony Baggaley, 39, were convicted by the Supreme Court of Brisbane on Thursday for attempting to smuggle 650 kg (1,433 pounds) of cocaine into Australia. Received.
The two have been on trial since March 18. Both have pleaded guilty to attempting to import the commercial volume of the border-controlled drug cocaine into Queensland, Coolangatta, on the Gold Coast between December 2017 and August 2018.
Dru and boat driver Anthony Draper were arrested in July 2018 after as dramatic a chase as “The James Bond Movie Screenplay.”Cat and mouse game As the Brisbane Times reported, Olympian’s defense lawyer Anthony Kimins said.
On July 31, 2018, Dru and Draper left the coast of New South Wales on a rigid hull inflatable boat (RHIB). Later, a large foreign vessel loaded a bunch of black cocaine worth about $ 100- $ 200 million.
About two hours later, a Navy patrol boat ordered them to stop and chased them on their way back to the shore. A video seen in court revealed that Draper tried to overtake a Navy boat while Dru “thrown an incredibly valuable cargo into the sea,” crown prosecutor Ben Power said. Said.
The two were finally arrested before arriving at the shore, a Navy ship aboard the RHIB and found a total of 587 kg of cocaine, and a bunch was found along the Queensland coast until Yepun a few months later.
Olympian was arrested in June 2019, about a year after police searched his home in Byron Bay. He was charged with supporting smuggling by purchasing and equipping the boat, betting, taped the boat’s registration number, and planning to meet the boat on the way back in cocaine.
The boat driver, Draper, was sentenced to 13 years in prison last February after pleading guilty to involvement, but was released on parole for four years and three months after agreeing to testify to Vagary. It was shortened to a period.
The decision date for Brother Baggaley has not yet been determined.