Abrolhos drug bust: Four men handed big jail sentences over foiled one-tonne drug smuggling bid

Jail terms of up to 33 years have been handed out to four men over the bungled bid to import almost one tonne of drugs into WA via the Abrolhos Islands. Despite a call from prosecutor to jail the men for life, Justice Michael Corboy instead sentenced the men to terms ranging from 22 years to 33 years. If not for a botched situation that saw the two vessels involved in the plot run aground at the Abrolhos, the trafficking scheme could have seen the more than 900kg of cocaine, ecstasy and ice hit WA streets, where their value could have been close to $1 billion. In the Supreme Court on Friday, Angus Bruce Jackson and Jason Lassiter were sentenced to 33 years in jail, with a minimum non-parole period of 23 years, while Scott Felix Jones received a 25-year term, of which he must serve at least 17 years. Graham Kurt Palmer was handed a 22-year term, with a non-parole period of 15 years. A fifth man has yet to be sentenced. The ambitious bid to bring the massive drugs haul onshore in September 2019 emerged in two separate trials — a plan that was hatched in Thailand, coordinated by a kingpin in Jersey, and then put into action by a yacht leaving Madagascar. A yacht named Zero was skippered by French national Antoine Dicenta and his younger British crewmate Palmer, who picked up the drugs in the middle of the Indian Ocean before sailing halfway around the world to bring them to WA. Meanwhile, sailing friends Jackson, Lassiter and Jones were recruited to meet the drugs in the Abrolhos, put them onto their powerboat and bring them ashore. The Jersey-based man who recruited them — John Alexander Roy — was in regular contact with both sides of the operation via satellite phone. But he was powerless to assist when first the yacht carrying the drugs, and then the Bayliner carrying the other three, both ran aground within hours of each other on September 2, 2019. Authorities began a major search and rescue mission after they found the yacht Zero abandoned with no crew on board. They eventually found Dicenta and Palmer on Burton Island along with 40 duffel bags stuffed with the drugs hidden by rocks and seaweed. Authorities also spotted the other boat, called DW140, cruising past which led to police chasing them up and eventually arresting those on board when they reached the mainland. Jackson, Lassiter and Jones were found guilty by a jury. Dicenta and Palmer both admitted their roles — after a recording of them offloading and discussing the drugs was played to the court. The three men who went on trial argued that they were at the Abrolhos on a “boys’ trip”. Justice Corboy said each offender had a different culpability in the “massive” drug operation, and that Jackson and Lassiter “fell just short” of the worst cases of this category. He accepted the offenders did not play an “executive role” in the scheme. “Rather, the offenders performed the role of couriers, albeit in a highly sophisticated and organised importation,” Justice Corboy said. The judge said this case highlighted the difficulty of detecting drug importation and if the two vessels had not run aground the operation could have proceeded with authorities none the wiser. All four men’s sentences were backdated to September 2019 when they were arrested. Jones, Lassiter and Palmer will likely be deported when they are released. This case illustrates the difficulty of detecting drug importations. Law enforcement authorities did not know that the Zero was travelling across the Indian Ocean towards Australia loaded with about 900kg of substances containing approximately 700kg of pure border-controlled drugs.