{"id":90219,"date":"2026-09-07T13:31:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T13:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/90219\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T13:31:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T13:31:24","slug":"five-people-charged-over-850kg-cocaine-haul-off-rottnest-island-go-on-trial-in-wa-supreme-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/90219\/","title":{"rendered":"Five people charged over 850kg cocaine haul off Rottnest Island go on trial in WA Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three men who allegedly set out on a boat to retrieve packages of cocaine off Rottnest Island on a “dark and stormy night” had to be rescued by water police, the WA Supreme Court has heard.<\/p>\n

The men were on board a vessel named “No Fixed Address”, which had been bought for $65,000 cash.<\/p>\n

But it was not taken out for a sea trial, and the trio found themselves rolling in choppy waters before their rescue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two of the men who were on the boat are part of a group of five people now on trial in the WA Supreme Court over the alleged importation.<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Steven Whybrow told the jury the men on the boat had new phones, coolers and hooks, which were allegedly to be used to drag packages of drugs on board.<\/p>\n

\"Steven<\/p>\n

Steven Whybrow describes the plot to import the drugs as being convoluted, like the movie Pulp Fiction. (ABC News: David Weber)<\/p>\n

But the court heard the cocaine, carefully wrapped in waterproof brick-sized packages, did not leave the cargo vessel the men were meant to rendezvous with.<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Whybrow said the MV St Pinot had left from Argentina for Fremantle with a load of soy bean meal, for chicken feed, but was also carrying nearly 850kg of cocaine.<\/p>\n

Vessel boarded<\/p>\n

The prosecutor said the cocaine was not to feed chickens, but to feed the drug trade in Australia.<\/p>\n

He told the jury the authorities had information that a large ship was going to bring drugs to Australia, and St Pinot was drifting off Rottnest instead of anchoring, ready to offload soy bean meal at Fremantle.<\/p>\n

MV St Pinot was boarded by ABF officers and Royal Australian Navy divers were brought in to inspect a water-filled ballast tank.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Law enforcement officers with the seized cocaine.\u00a0 (ABC News: Dave Weber)<\/p>\n

In total, 29 packages of cocaine were discovered.<\/p>\n

The fact that the cocaine was found on the vessel is not in dispute, but who brought it to Australia and who wanted to receive it is.<\/p>\n

Plot like ‘Pulp Fiction’<\/p>\n

The failed alleged drug importation in 2023 is now the subject of a lengthy trial involving five accused.<\/p>\n

The captain of St Pinot, 46-year-old Milan Begovic, is accused of importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug.<\/p>\n

Two of the men who were on No Fixed Address, Germanas Joneliunas, 24, and Terrence Baker, 29, are accused of attempting to import the cocaine.<\/p>\n

\"Sketches<\/p>\n

The five people on trial are (back from left) Meagan Rees, Ashley Vlotman and Germanas Joneliunas, and (front from left) Terrence William Baker and Milan Begovic.\u00a0 (Supplied: Anne Barnetson)<\/p>\n

Ashley Vlotman, 40, and Meagan Rees, 35, are accused of aiding the attempted importation.<\/p>\n

Mr Whybrow said there were lots of moving parts to the prosecution’s case, and compared it the film Pulp Fiction, in that it jumped around but came together as one story.<\/p>\n

He also said the jurors could also think of it as a jigsaw.<\/p>\n

The trial, which involves the use of two interpreters, is expected to run for more than 10 weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three men who allegedly set out on a boat to retrieve packages of cocaine off Rottnest Island on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,155285,155286,155288,849,466,463,155284,155287,465,155289,464],"class_list":["post-90219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-bulk-carrier","tag-cocaine-importation","tag-how-prevalent-is-cocaine-in-wa","tag-organised-crime","tag-perth-courts","tag-perth-news","tag-st-pinot","tag-wa-cocaine","tag-wa-courts","tag-wa-drug-importation","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90219","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=90219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}