{"id":7367,"date":"2026-05-08T07:57:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T07:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/7367\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T07:57:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T07:57:11","slug":"two-teenagers-who-acted-in-shore-party-for-drug-importers-jailed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/7367\/","title":{"rendered":"Two teenagers who acted in ‘shore party’ for drug importers jailed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two teenagers have been jailed over their role in the country’s largest cocaine bust after being allegedly recruited by a man with bikie links.<\/p>\n

The pair, now aged 19, faced a sentencing hearing earlier this week after pleading guilty to attempting to possess a commercial quantity of an unlawfully imported border-controlled drug.<\/p>\n

One of the teens also admitted to trafficking dangerous drugs.<\/p>\n

On Friday Justice Paul Smith ordered they both serve actual time in custody, handing down sentences of 18 months and two years, respectively.<\/p>\n

Both will be released once they serve 50 per cent of their sentences.<\/p>\n

What happened during the botched plot was revealed in court during submissions made by the prosecution and the teens’ defence lawyers.<\/p>\n

The court heard in November 2024, the Australian Federal Police intercepted a boat off the Fraser Coast, which was holding almost two tonnes of cocaine with more than 80 per cent purity.<\/p>\n

\"Interior<\/p>\n

The AFP intercepted a boat off the Fraser Coast holding almost two tonnes of cocaine in 2024. (ABC News: James Taylor)<\/p>\n

It was believed the drugs had been collected from an unknown foreign ship in international waters, the court heard.<\/p>\n

Justice Smith told the court the teens had been sentenced on the basis they were reckless as to whether they knew they were taking possession of a border-controlled drug.<\/p>\n

“It is common ground the evidence was not capable of establishing they had actual knowledge,” he said.Alleged bikie link<\/p>\n

The court heard the pair had been recruited by a man allegedly linked to the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang, who was known to one of the teens.<\/p>\n

They were lured in by the promise of up to $300,000 each, the court heard.<\/p>\n

Their role, the court heard, was to form part of a “shore party”, along with other men, who would unload the cocaine from smaller boats onto trucks.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The court heard the teenagers were recruited by a man with links to the Comanchero bikie gang.<\/p>\n

However, the court heard the entire plan was foiled and the teens and several men were arrested shortly after the larger boat carrying the drugs became stranded off K’gari.<\/p>\n

Justice Smith told the court the importation of drugs in Australia was “a very serious matter”.<\/p>\n

“The use of drugs has an impact on all levels on society,” he said<\/p>\n

He accepted they had entered early guilty pleas, but ordered convictions be recorded for the more serious offences.<\/p>\n

Eleven men, including the crew of the vessel allegedly attempting to import the illicit drugs, are still before the court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two teenagers have been jailed over their role in the country’s largest cocaine bust after being allegedly recruited…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,8674,8673,2668,8675,8672,8676,6969,8677,6329],"class_list":{"0":"post-7367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-austrlia","10":"tag-bikie","11":"tag-bust","12":"tag-cocaine","13":"tag-comanchero","14":"tag-drugs","15":"tag-gang","16":"tag-jail","17":"tag-sentenced","18":"tag-teenagers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}