Two 39-year-old men are loaded onto the Queensland Police Service Air Wing by Australian Federal Police officers at Bamaga’s Northern Peninsula Airport after they were arrested on 2 September for allegedly possessing 110 kilograms of cocaine. Photo: Australian Federal Police.
Two Torres Strait men have been refused bail after being arrested in the Northern Peninsula Area charged with allegedly possessing a commercial quantity of cocaine with a street value of $44 million.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) charged the men, Patterson Mosby and Eli Wapau, both 39, after they were arrested in Seisia on 2 September for possessing 110 kilograms of the drug, which police will allege they collected from a small boat in the Torres Strait.
The men were arrested by officers from the AFP Cairns Crime Team after they were observed removing several polystyrene boxes from the boat and loading them into a car at the Seisia wharf.
Police intercepted the car and conducted a search of the boxes, allegedly locating 110 packages containing a white substance, which returned a positive test result for cocaine.
The men were taken into custody and transported to Bamaga police station before being flown to Cairns on 3 September with the assistance of the Queensland Police Service Air Wing.
Mr Mosby, from Yorke Island, and Mr Wapau, who resideds on Moa Island man, have both been charged with possessing a commercial quantity of border controlled drugs (cocaine).
The maximum penalty for this offence is life imprisonment.
The men faced Cairns Magistrates Court on 4 September where Magistrate Michael Dalton refused their bail application.
During the hearing, the court heard there was a “high likelihood this offending involved a larger criminal network”.
AFP acting commander Adrian Telfer said the desire from criminal syndicates to profit from cocaine came at the expense of the Australian community.
“Every time someone buys cocaine, they are funding organised crime groups who are responsible for violence in Australia and around the world,” he said.
“This amount of cocaine has an estimated street value of $44 million.
“The AFP and our partners will not let organised crime turn the Pacific into an illicit drug superhighway, fuelling their own greed at the expense of the Australian community.”
The 110kg of cocaine Australian Federal Police allege two men travelled to Seisia to collect from a small boat in the Torres Strait. Photo: Australian Federal Police.
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