It has been revealed in court that Anthony Draper tricked his co-accused, Dru Baggaley, into a plan to collect a large load of tobacco out at sea when in fact Mr. Draper knew the real plan was to collect cocaine.
In July 2018 Anthony Draper and Dru Baggaley were arrested in a boat out at sea and charged by the AFP for attempting to import a large load of cocaine which had been delivered from another ship. It is a strange case as the authorities watched the ship enter Australian waters on 31 July 2018 and air surveillance filmed the ship unload the cocaine into the ocean before leaving Australian waters. The navy, air force and water police were all nearby however the ship was not intercepted or stopped and the persons on the ship have never been arrested.
Mr. Draper, from Sydney, was sentenced to 4 years in jail for agreeing to testify against Dru at his trial. The prosecution accepted Mr. Draper’s story which seemed to pass all the blame onto Dru. In accepting Mr. Draper’s story the prosecution gave him a reduced role and involvement in the plan and his sentence was discounted by almost fifty percent for agreeing to testify against Dru.
However it has been revealed in court that Mr. Draper has told the police a completely false story as his story unravelled when he had to give evidence in court. It was revealed that Mr. Draper misled the police and lied to the police when he participated in interviews with the police and it has been revealed that he sent Dru letters telling Dru he was sorry for tricking him and sorry for setting up Dru. The letters stated that Mr. Draper could not tell Dru the plan involved cocaine as the people above Mr. Draper would kill him. The letters show that Dru genuinely believed he was involved in a plan for tobacco and not drugs. There is other evidence to suggest that Dru was not supposed to go out to sea but when another man pulled out of the plan last minute Mr. Draper told Dru that he had to get in the boat as Mr. Draper needed help out at sea.
The importation of unlicensed or untaxed tobacco is a very real and frequent event. Serious organised crime groups now control the illicit tobacco importation trade and the experts and government have regularly stated that illicit tobacco importation is ten times more profitable than cocaine importation. The head of Australian Border Force has said that organised crime groups will use the same methods to import tobacco as they use to import drugs. David Chrisifulli (need to check spelling) the Queensland opposition leader recently said that there are more illegal tobacco shops in Queensland than legal ones. The increase in taxes on tobacco has seen the illicit tobacco trade soar. Most illicit tobacco is imported into Australia on boats and ships.
It would seem that Dru’s belief in tobacco was very reasonable and at trial his claims of tobacco only needs to be possible and the jury must acquit him. In order for the jury to find Dru guilty they must be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Draper’s letters are false. It seems that this will be a hard task as a judge has previously stated that, “Mr. Draper is a completely unreliable witness especially in relation to the letters as he changes his version three or four times…so I just can’t accept anything Draper says”.
Dru and his brother Nathan have been in jail over 6 years waiting for trial and both men maintain their innocence. Their trial will be held in October this year.