$77 Million Drug Bust at Jandakot

[Maxweight]

By Jim Kelly news.com
March 06, 2008 04:29pm

WA police have seized a massive methylamphetamine haul worth nearly $80 million after searching a plane which flew from New South Wales into Perth's Jandakot Airport.

The massive drug haul was on aboard a light plane which flew into Jandakot Airport. Police have and arrested and charged the pilot and passenger with drug-related offences.

Organised Crime Squad and State Security Investigation Group officers intercepted a Piper Aztec plane with two people on board which left from New South Wales on Tuesday and arrived at Jandakot around 5pm yesterday.

"The biggest Drug Haul ever in WA"

Maxweight

Detectives searched the twin engine aircraft and found a bag allegedly containing 22kg of methylamphetamine and 8.85kg of ecstasy (approximately 35,000 tablets).

The NSW pilot of the plane and his 24 year old passenger were both interviewed at the Organised Crime Squad offices and each was charged with Possess Methylamphetamine With Intent to Sell or Supply and Possess MDMA (ecstasy) with Intent to Sell or Supply.

Both men were due to appear in the Perth Magistrate’s Court today.

The approximate street value of the methylamphetamine seized by police is conservatively estimated at $75 million, while the street value of the 35,000 MDMA tablets is around $1.8 million.

The 37 year old pilot is the owner of the plane (valued around $130,000) which has been frozen under proceeds of crime legislation.

Organised Crime Squad officers are continuing their enquires with assistance from NSW police to determine the origin and the intended Perth destination of the drugs.

Securing regional and remote airports and identifying connected security and crime issues and light aircraft movements remain a significant focus of the State Security Investigation Group,
Organised Crime Squad, Regional Police Districts and other state and federal agencies.

[Jabawocky]

OK who owns the Aztec.............:confused:

Gee lucky there was not a diversion required to Bali:ooh:

Hope they get what they deserve!:mad:

J

[tinpis]

Judging by the amount of discarded water bottles outside nightclubs I would venture to say the supply gets through ok.:rolleyes:

[marty1468]

I would say a "tip-off" must have been the order of the day. No sympathy to those involved. Looks like it might be a good chrissy party for the Feds tho :E

[Flying Binghi]

What a load of drivel....
Securing regional and remote airports and identifying connected security and crime issues and light aircraft movements remain a significant focus of the State Security Investigation Group,
Organised Crime Squad, Regional Police Districts and other state and federal agencies.


Sooo... no plane... suppose they could just drive a car...

[Jabawocky]

Apparently up here the local cops had bee trying to find out about some night vision goggled ops in and out of YCAB at night.

No lights on the a/c or the airfield:ooh:.

Some of these guys are well kitted out it seems. Until they hit a kangaroo on the strip:}.

J

[Flying Binghi]

Apparently up here the local cops had bee trying to find out about some night vision goggled ops in and out of YCAB at night.


Jaba, I hear Jabarus dont show up to well on radar either...:E

I was wondering how you fund your flying... PNG gold ? :eek:



A link for the News article -

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23329637-1242,00.html

[Trojan1981]

I suppose there is nothing (except the law, of course) to stop drug traffickers from airdropping their cargo at a pre determined DZ. Even at night, by GPS and NVG. The aircraft could even depart from a private property.
So how much effect do you think 'securing' GA airports would have?:cool:

[desert_rat]

Must say it is one way of building up your hours and funding aviation, seems the only way to make a living is to start with $hit loads to begin with and than start shelling it out along the way, paying for endorsements and surviving on bread and water till you manage to get that one job that still pays you below the national average.

[Flying Binghi]

Sounds like the police knew about the drugs pre-flight.
What does the delivery method have to do with anything... they could of driven a car, taken a bus, a train, a slow camel, from NSW to WA.

[Ski Guru]

Reminds me of a good story, try the story written by POW Spike Nasmyth : The Boys Who Bring In The Crop.

A very good read, and its available on the net.

Powder to the People

[Traffic]

..silly me...for the thinking the Eagles had cleaned up their act.:}

[Mr. Hat]

I'd be interested to see where Vh-pfd is from...

[Jabawocky]

Flying Binghi

Nahhhhh no night rating:ok:

Jabiru's and other plastics do not show up well if they have the transponder off and are a reasonable distance away.

Pretty quiet too....so a stealthy NVFR machine if you did that sort of thing!

J:ok:

[ABX]

Traffic and Dr Okenfold,

Classic, got a good laugh from me.

Have any of the notorious eagles got an IFR rating?:}

Cheers

[wessex19]

Just watching channel 10 news, pilots name and aircraft rego announced by police. Vh-PDF pilot was owner of aircraft.

VH PFD

Power Driven Aeroplane with tricycle-retractable landing gear
2 Piston engines

Manufacturer: PIPER AIRCRAFT CORP
Model: PA-23-250
Serial number: 27-4432
Aircraft first registered in Australia: 05 August 1970

Full Registration
Registration holder as of 18 May 2007

SANTOS AVIATION PTY LTD

24A Cook Street
TEMPE NSW 2044
AUSTRALIA

Registered operator as of 18 May 2007

SANTOS, Jamieson Andrew

PO BOX 1971
TAMWORTH NSW 2340
AUSTRALIA

[Flying Binghi]

I'm wondering why the ABC journalist thinks the Jandakot manager needs to defend himself :* over what is a Police matter.

Going with the lazy ABC journalists mindset, perhaps the Main roads minister should be under media scrutiny for allowing drug dealers to drive on the road and the Mayor of the local shire council should be getting some media heat as well...

Airport defends security
The general manager at Jandakot airport is defending security arrangements there following a record drug bust.
John Fraser says there is surveillance and airport staff work actively with the police.
Mr Fraser says Jandakot complies with federal security requirements.
"Nothing like this has happened before," he said.
"It's not a surprise. We work actively with the police. Right throughout the year there are security patrols and they have some surveillance at the airport."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/07/2182754.htm?site=perth

[notmyC150v2]

Couldn't agree more FB. No matter who pays their wages, all journalists are just looking for a scapegoat so they can scream a bigger headline. W@nkers, the lot of them. First against the wall come the revolution. Them and advertising executives.

I'm not sure I would want to buy the plane. Everytime you got tested with one of those thingies at the security check point you would come up positive for traces of that ecstacy stuff. You could never get rid of all traces. (not that I have tried of course...).

Of course on the up side you would always be higher than the plane :}

[Mr. Hat]

with 80 million dollars worth of drugs you would be about a mile high or 6 foot under...

[Islander Jock]

Maybe the journos should be asking the question about security at the airport where the flight originated from, not its destination.

Can't wait of for the sale by tender notices to come out :E

[omniplasm]

perhaps they were just innocently doing "icing" trials???
:O

[To infinity & beyond]

Spoke with the pilot the other day and he was talking about upgrading to a bigger and faster plane. Guess he wont have to worry about that for a while!!! He mostly flew IFR, so the flight plans/destinations will be easy to track down.

[Flying Binghi]

And the bait is -
Maybe the journos should be asking the question about security at the airport where the flight originated from

Islander Jock, I hope thats not a suggestion of searching all private aircraft.

[Islander Jock]

:= Don't go putting words in my mouth FB.

[Jabawocky]

IFR Plans.............nahhhhh do you think the cops are smart enough to ask ASA for the records?

You have got to hope someone from ASA reads this and offers them to the cops....just so the rest of the bastards get done over. Should do what the Singapreans do with them I reckon.

J:ok:

[gaunty]

And that's just the ones they've caught.:ugh::rolleyes:

[TWT]

'Russian roulette' pair jailed 15 years for transporting drugs in light plane | Herald Sun (http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/pair-jailed-15-years-for-transporting-drugs-in-light-plane/story-fn7x8me2-1226261108480)

[YPJT]

Couldn't believe my luck when I was called for jury duty and the court my number came up for was with these two. Didn't get pulled out of the ballot box in the court but I well and truly had a spiel for his honour that would have had me out of the jury box in a heartbeat.:p

Poor PFD is looking pretty sad out on the grass amongst the northern hangars.

[bekolblockage]

Apparently up here the local cops had bee trying to find out about some night vision goggled ops in and out of YCAB at night.

No lights on the a/c or the airfield.

Some of these guys are well kitted out it seems. Until they hit a kangaroo on the strip.



Why would you bother going to all that sort of clandestine cr@p?

Who cares about a VFR PA23 taking off in the middle of the day and heading west to who-knows-where? With a black overnight bag no less?

Like robbing a house - snooping around at 2 am looks decidedly dodgy. Pulling up in a tradies van in broad daylight, climbing a ladder and pulling tiles off the roof wouldn't get a second glance.

Security my @ss. Definitely a tipoff.

[Sunfish]

Once the police know the mobile or landline phone number of any "person of interest", criminal conspiracies unravel very, very, fast.

There is very sophisticated software that builds the picture of the persons network using phone numbers and associated call records, bank account numbers, addresses, car registrations, credit card details, etc. To my knowledge, early versions of these programs were only ever displayed in public once - during the Costigan Royal Commission, and haven't seen the light of day since then.


...And all that is before they even bother with getting an interception warrant.

The pilot of this aircraft was nailed from the second he took the first phone call from the crooks.

[aussie027]

Sunfish is correct.
A tipoff and/ or police intel definitely at work here.

The crooks always seem to assume the cops/ customs are idiots and they are waaaay smarter and not going to get caught.
Sometimes they may not, not the first time or maybe the second but eventually the law gets them.
Trying to ship drugs internationally is even more risky than doing it domestically yet they keep trying and usually get caught.
Most smaller criminal organizations, apart from maybe some of the worlds largest drug cartels ( eg Central American cartels) cannot match the resources of the law enforcement agencies.
Corruption and having the ability to buy off agents/agencies and buy their intel, as in Central America is obviously a huge problem.
Unless you are a very clever lone individual who isn't even a blip on anyones radar your chances of getting away with a major crime is going to be very slim.
A trail of some kind is always left behind and the more people who are in on it the bigger/longer it gets, usually at a geometric rate. People are careless and have big mouths so something always gets out.

[Tinstaafl]

Wasn't there a mob over that way operating "Mile High" flights? Had a Seneca or something all decked out, maybe this is an addition to their fleet?


Competition for the mile high club Seneca, more likely.

"Not just a mile high but really, really high!" :}

[Charlie Foxtrot India]

Amazing it has taken four years to get to trial. I remember wondering why there were so many people surrounding the Aztec as soon as it parked, so the cops knew it was coming.

[VH_IYI]

VH-PFD for sale by online auction Ross's Auctions Perth WA.

[virgindriver]

VH-PFD for sale by online auction Ross's Auctions Perth WA.

Wasn’t such a bad plane to fly, as far as Aztecs go.

[Pinky the pilot]

A good steam clean:E plus a few AD's to do (I guess):confused:

Might not be a bad buy!:hmm:

No, I'm not tempted!

[YPJT]

A good steam clean:E plus a few AD's to do (I guess):confused:

Might not be a bad buy!:hmm:

No, I'm not tempted!
so it’s been sitting idle for about 10 or 11yrs now.
Be a big undertaking if anyone takes it on. Gotta admit, I’m a bit partial to the old Aztec one of the true 6 place twins with a respectable payload

[Bend alot]

Is that auction for both the aircraft AND the Harley? both currently showing $8,700.

One on them is probably a good buy at that price.