The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has charged two senior crew members from a bulk cargo carrier for their alleged roles in the importation of around 850kg of cocaine into Australia.
The men – the vessel’s master and chief engineer, both from Montenegro – faced the Perth Magistrates Court on Friday and were charged with importing a commercial quantity of cocaine. They face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment if convicted.
Media reports from both Australia and Montenegro identified the master as Milan Begović and the chief engineer as Radovan Vujičić which were posted on the bulk cargo carrier ST Pinot.
.Police claimed that the pair knew the cocaine was hidden onboard the cargo carrier and planned to drop it overboard off the Fremantle coast to be collected by another group. The master allegedly instructed other crew members to alter the vessel’s course as it neared Fremantle Port to rendezvous with another vessel.
According to the AFP, they planned to meet with a cabin cruiser named No Fixed Address, but the planned exchange failed.
The men allegedly attempted to conceal the drugs by filling the ballast tank that the drugs were hidden in with water and instructed members of the crew to backdate logs and provide false information to shipping agent authorities.
Following the arrest, a replacement master and chief engineer have been brought onto the cargo carrier.
The drugs were found after a joint agency investigation. Police arrested three men who had been travelling on the cabin cruiser and charged them for their alleged involvement in the attempted import.
Australian Border Force Commander of Operations West Ranjeev Maharaj said cocaine shipments were being seized at Australia’s border at record levels and that the ABF will work closely with partner agencies both domestic and abroad to combat this criminal behaviour.
This is not the first time Montenegrin nationals have been arrested over cocaine importing. In Australia, a master was charged for his alleged role in a plot to import 320kg of cocaine in May 2022 while another was revealed as a mastermind behind a string of cocaine shipments from South America – one of them an 18-ton haul found on the MSC Gayane at the port of Philadelphia in 2019.
