Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Australian Federal Police - Platypus Journal/Magazine

Jarrett, Janice --- "Cyclones and a national crisis couldn't blunt teamwork and cooperation" [1998] AUFPPlatypus 33; (1998) 61 Platypus: Journal of the Australian Federal Police, Article 4

Cyclones and a national crisis couldn't blunt teamwork and cooperation

When Federal Agent Martin Hess of the AFP's Northern Region was assigned as team leader of Operation Tibia, he could not have foreseen the hurdles his team would have to overcome in dismantling a suspected cannabis importation racket. The operation led to the conviction this year of two of the conspirators, and was characterised by its strong teamwork within the AFP, and complex inter-agency cooperation involving the Australian Customs Service, Australian Coastwatch, the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary, Queensland Police, and AusAID Police Projects Advisers. But while unforeseen circumstances can make life difficult for investigators, offenders can also run into their own share of misfortune, as the following account of the operation shows.

By Janice Jarrett

Sketchy information about a 16-metre ex-pilot boat headed up the Queensland coast from Brisbane was all AFP officers had to go on when they asked the Australian Customs Service for assistance in February 1997.

But a vessel matching the description and travelling northward at high speed through cyclonic conditions was quick to arouse Customs' interest.

Called the Boyne, the vessel, which had been bought under suspicious circumstances in Gladstone some months earlier, hotly pursued its destination after sailing out of Mackay despite tropical cyclone Gillian being active in the Whitsundays.

No other boats had left the harbour that day and the Boyne, which had been in dry dock undergoing more than $35,000 worth of remodelling including the addition of an artificial deck, seemed particularly earnest in braving the elements.

The Boyne berthed at No.2 Trawler Base in Trinity Inlet, Cairns, three days after leaving Mackay on February 28.

On board were two Brisbane men, Paul Lyle Brown, an ex-member of an outlaw motorcycle gang, and a businessman, Ross McNair Muir, as well as the skipper.

A Cairns man, Bruce Botha, suspected of involvement in cannabis importations into remote parts of northern Australia, met with Muir at the trawler base on March 3.

Muir, Brown and the skipper then went to the Australian Customs Office in Cairns to notify officers that they would be sailing to Papua New Guinea to seek suitable sites for pre-fabricated housing along the coast of PNG. However, Muir said he would fly to Port Moresby as he suffered from sea sickness.

As the Boyne prepared for its journey, a second cyclone, Justin, was developing in the Coral Sea. On the evening of March 4, the boat sailed through Trinity Inlet and headed northward, mooring on the north side of Double Island a few hours later. The short stopover provided an inconspicuous rendezvous to take Bruce Botha on board using a green fibreglass canoe and a rubber mat as a ramp. The Boyne then continued on its way as warnings were being posted for tropical cyclone Justin as a low stage two.

Despite extreme weather conditions during the vessel's voyage up the coast of Cape York Peninsula, into the Torres Strait and then across the Gulf of Papua, the perseverance of Australian Coastwatch ensured that the AFP was kept updated, with the Boyneeventually arriving at Fairfax Harbour, Port Moresby on March 12.

But stormy conditions persisted for the operation as a constitutional crisis in PNG was brewing out of the Sandline mercenary affair, diverting resources including the AFP's Senior Liaison Officer in Port Moresby, Federal Agent Ian Atkinson and the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary National Drug Squad. They continued, however, to provide somewhat limited but highly effective support.

And as fate would have it, things were not going to plan for the offenders either — their initial scheme was foiled with the arrest of Bruce Botha, another man named Ian David Treloggen, and some PNG nationals in Lae and Bulolo, by the Lae Drug Squad for possessing 100kg of compressed and vacuum sealed cannabis. Botha subsequently served prison sentences for immigration offences and cannabis possession while Treloggen later provided evidence to the RPNGC.

Muir, who had helped Botha to travel to Lae under an alias, had returned to Brisbane in early April while the skipper of the Boyne had returned to Brisbane soon after arriving in Port Moresby. He later helped federal agents in their inquiries and as he had been unaware of the boat's reason for travel, was granted indemnity from the DPP.

The Boyne finally left PNG in late June with Paul Brown its only original crew member. He had found a new skipper, John Adani, and another crew member, Robert Saro. They sailed directly across the Coral Sea, entered the Great Barrier Reef near Lizard Island, and arrived at Double Island north of Cairns. The three men then used the green fibreglass canoe to take two cardboard boxes from the boat to the island. From Double Island, the boat put in to Palm Cove jetty and Brown went ashore to use a public phone, but didn't make a connection. Meanwhile, Ross Muir had driven from Brisbane to Cairns, ostensibly for a fishing trip but packed up and returned to Brisbane about the time that the Boyne arrived in the Cairns area, supposedly because he did not receive the anticipated phone call from Brown. When the Boyne sailed in to Trinity Inlet, Cairns, AFP and ACS officers and Queensland Police were waiting for them.

John Adani later took authorities to the site at Double Island where about 40kg of loose packed cannabis leaf had been hidden. Brown, Adani and Saro were charged and the vessel and all goods seized. Federal Agents Martin Hess and Simon Halford later went to PNG to interview Ian Treloggen, who became a Crown witness.

Treloggen said that the original plan had been for him and another accomplice, Glenn Jerry Jonsson, to travel to the PNG highlands and buy about one tonne of cannabis on behalf of Botha, who had given them a vacuum sealing machine and 500 plastic bags. The cannabis was to be heat sealed and buried at a site on the north coast of PNG with a Global Positioning Satellite fix from where it would be picked up by a boat from Australia, which was to sail around the top of Irian Jaya across the Arafura Sea and to a remote inlet along the Northern Territory coastline.

However, while collecting the cannabis, Treloggen and Jonsson had been robbed by PNG tribesmen. Jonsson panicked and returned to Australia, necessitating Botha to go to PNG to oversee the collection. Jonsson was later implicated as a major conspirator in the plan and charged.

Federal Agent Hess said that the events in Lae had left Paul Brown in Port Moresby with no source of supply and no skipper. He had a large financial interest in the Boyne and needed to recoup his losses, and so set about obtaining the 40kg which was later recovered at Double Island.

A variety of charges ranging from actual importation, conspiracy to import, and being knowingly concerned in the importation were laid against the offenders.

Brown and Muir faced the Queensland Supreme Court in July. Brown received a three-year sentence to serve 15 months less time served, while Muir was convicted for three years to serve 18 months.

Jonsson defended himself and was acquitted by jury following a five day trial, Adani was granted bail and failed to report, while Saro was excused on a ruling that he didn't understand the caution before he was interviewed.

"In summary the [conspirators'] original plan was ambitious but easily achievable," said Federal Agent Hess.

Crucial to the operation's success was the effective coordination of information, and regular updates and briefings from AFP Brisbane, Cairns and Port Moresby to relevant stakeholders including the Australian Customs Service, Australian Coastwatch, the Queensland Police Service and the Federal Director of Public Prosecutions, and particularly the work of Cairns Operations members Federal Agents Leisa James and Mal Tweedie.

"The aspect of teamwork cannot be emphasised highly enough," Federal Agent Hess said.