Comanchero vice president charged over Australia’s largest ever cocaine seizure

By Jessica Black, Claudia Williams, Grace Whiteside

A Comanchero outlaw bikie gang leader has been charged over Australia’s largest ever cocaine seizure, police say.

A transnational organised crime syndicate with links to the Comancheros is alleged to have attempted to bring 2.34 tonnes of cocaine into Australia.

Eleven men and two juveniles were arrested on Saturday night and in the early hours of Sunday morning, in a joint investigation between the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Queensland police.

The arrests include the vice president of the Comancheros Brisbane chapter, and a patched member.

Authorities allege the group attempted to import the drugs into Queensland by sea.

Two boat breakdowns

AFP Commander Stephen Jay said authorities had been tracking the vessel allegedly sent to pick the drugs up from a mothership in international waters hundreds of kilometres off the Queensland coast.

“As the vessel returned to the Queensland coast it suffered mechanical issues and broke down, triggering a coordinated police action,” he said.

He said it was the second boat that broke down in the alleged attempt.

The accused spent $150,000 late last week on a new vessel to reach the mothership, he said.

“We’ll allege that the syndicate had made two attempts with two separate boats, both of which broke down,” Commander Jay said.

The men onboard were stranded at sea for several hours before police arrived.

The pair were allegedly working on behalf of the Comancheros, and were on their way to Bundaberg when the boat broke down.

Commander Jay said multiple people had been rescued attempting to retrieve illicit drugs from offshore vessels in recent years.

“It’s inherently dangerous, inherently risky to load such a large quantity of border control drugs on the high seas,” he said.

Conspiracy charges

Each person has been charged with conspiracy to import 2.34 tonnes of cocaine into Australia.

Commander Jay said two of the men arrested in Bundaberg were patched members of the Comancheros.

He said the drugs had been imported from South America, but was unable to say which country.

“Australia is a very attractive market for organised criminal groups to send drugs such as cocaine,” he said.

“Obviously we have, through our international network, the ability to reach into Colombia and that will be certainly one of the aspects we’ll look at.”

It will be alleged that the Comancheros would have been involved in distributing the drugs, Commander Jay said.

“Quite often these could take years, this has been a very quick operation but with exceptional results and we’ll allege significant disruption of a well-entrenched transnational organised crime syndicate,” he said.

He said the seizure was expected to affect domestic supply.

“We’ll expect an impact on the price,” he said.

Matters heard in court

The matters of eight of the group were mentioned in the Bundaberg Magistrates Court on Monday.

Andrew John Bamforth, Geovani Marius, Riccardo Marius, Nukutawhiti Tenika Matika, Zaquias Jack Matika, Daniel Schieven and Donald Vilaylath did not appear and remain in custody.

An eighth man, Ryan Sean Givney, applied for bail but was refused.

His lawyer Adam Moschella argued the prosecution’s evidence for charging him was circumstantial.

Moschella said there was “nothing concrete” linking Giveny to the co-accused besides being near where the alleged offending happened.

The court heard he was on parole for drug trafficking offences from 2018.

In refusing bail, Magistrate John McInnes said there was an unacceptable risk that Mr Giveny would reoffend or fail to appear for future court dates.

The matters are set to return to the Bundaberg Magistrates Court on Thursday.

The matters of two other accused, 35-year-old David Pfeffer and 57-year-old Mark Sutton, were mentioned at the Maryborough Magistrates Court on Monday. It was adjourned until Wednesday.

– This story was first published by ABC.