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The exclusive inside story of bungled billion-dollar Abrolhos drug run

Dazzling in the sun around 80km off the coast of Geraldton, the Abrolhos Islands is a coral encrusted jewel on the fringe of the Indian Ocean. In Portuguese, Abrolhos roughly translates to “keep your eyes open” — an apt warning to skippers attempting to navigate the underwater maze of reef and rock which lies beneath the idyllic surface. Those perils have long been etched into Western Australia’s maritime history. The macabre tale of the Batavia — whose grounding near Beacon Island in 1629 led to mutiny and mass murder — is the dark heart of the glistening Abrolhos archipelago. And on September 2, 2019 at Stick Island — less than 50km from where more than 100 men, women and children were massacred centuries earlier — another vessel found itself stranded, and another crew realised they were in a desperate spot. Like the Batavia, the yacht Zero had been carrying precious cargo. And skipper Antoine Dicenta knew he could not leave that cargo behind. He had come too far to just abandon one tonne of high purity narcotics — with an estimated street value of around $1 billion — on some rock in the middle of sea. So, along with his crewmate Graham Palmer who had sailed more than 7000km with him, the pair began looking for a way out. And his first port of call was to get in touch with a chap known by the nickname “Glasses” — real name John Alexander Roy. Roy knew a fair bit about drugs, and boats. And he was the one who — despite the time difference and vast distance — Dicenta and Palmer looked to for help. “Please ask the guys to hurry up or we are f....d,” one text message read. Such a long way from the Jersey Isles to the Abrolhos Islands. An equally long way from the Thailand bars where the connections which morphed into a global conspiracy had been formed. And even further away from what Roy and his two crews had planned — one of the richest and deadliest drug importations in Australian history. THAILAND TIES The on-water journey of the Zero had officially begun on the west coast of Madagascar on July 19, 2019. But in reality, it had begun years before, on the waters and in the bars of Phuket. Texan importer Jason Lassiter, Australian hotelier Angus Jackson and British electrician Scott Felix Jones — known as Knuckles — all shared various interests which made them feel less like strangers in a strange land. Jones and Lassiter were keen yachtsmen. Lassiter and Jackson were both interested in e-commerce and cryptocurrency. And so began a group friendship which centred around Roxanne’s Restaurant, a cheap but cheerful bar in the Phuket Island village of Rawai. Roxanne’s was owned by Lassiter’s partner Nida. It was a haven for ex-pats looking for a big breakfast and a longer liquid lunch. And so it became a convenient watering hole for the boys. Another of whom was John Roy. Lassiter had met him the same night he had met Jones, at a London pub in 2015. They also hit it off, and when Roy was in Thailand some months later, Lassiter’s affection grew — as did his admiration for what he could do in a boat. “It was a very high level. I would say almost like a yacht master which is the top,” Lassiter would later tell a jury. “He was a really fine guy to hang out with But on what his friend did for a living, Lassiter said he wasn’t as sure. “He discussed and talked a lot about sailing. I know that he used to … deliver boats.” Which was true. Like the 18-metre sloop Highlander, which after setting off from the tiny Pacific island of Tuvalu in 1996, made its way to Queensland – to supposedly cruise the Great Barrier Reef. Customs and police believed differently, and so Highlander’s meandering progress was tracked from air and land until it was eventually intercepted, with a cargo of eight tonnes of cannabis resin. Of 13 people arrested, John Roy was later described in Queensland’s Supreme Court as a ringleader – receiving a 14 year jail term, with seven to serve. Then in June 2109, there was another sailboat, the Loxley B, which Roy chartered in Southampton, sailed away and then handed over to two accomplices then piloted it to the Channel Islands – along with 5,113 MDMA tablets, two kilograms of MDMA powder, a kilo of cocaine and 4.6kg of cannabis. According to Lassiter, as close as they were, he knew nothing of his friend’s criminal history. Nor the fact that another person the police in Jersey believed was involved in that plot – in fact was giving out instructions – was another mutual mate. Scott Felix Jones. BOY’S TRIP And so, it just so happened that as Dicenta and Palmer were departing Madagascar on their luxury yacht, the trio of friends from Thailand were planning their own adventure -- looking for a boat to carry them all from the WA shoreline to the Abrolhos. In a Mandurah marina, they found what they were looking for – a mint condition 30-foot Bayliner pleasure boat, called ‘DW140’ – which in June 2019 they snapped up for just under $60,000. Other arrangements were made – two satellite phones, jerry cans for fuel, a hand-spear, binoculars, a knife, a straw hat – even a copy of Peter Fitzsimons’ book about the Batavia’s black history. In the later weeks of August, the trio took two trips out there. According to Lassiter, they had been roaring fun. Snorkelling, fishing, sightseeing, drinking. But in the midst of it all, Lassiter claimed he had wanted to test his satellite phone was working worldwide. So he made a call. Not to his girlfriend back in Thailand. Or his mother in Texas. He just happened to have John Roy’s new number back in the UK. So he gave him a ring. And then another. And then another. “We had some funny stories about some seals, some fish and various stories,” he said. “A seal really liked Scott. Some fish really liked Gus. Different things like that. Joking.” And how handy that Roy – all the way back in the UK – now had the number of the phone on DW140. Because on September 2, just as his mates were steaming back out to explore the south of Abrolhos he called, with a problem. “He said he had some friends that were in the Abrolhos Islands, and he said … that they’re on a yacht and they had bumped a reef and might need a pull off the reef,” Lassiter later claimed in court. “I said: ‘Well, sucks to be them.’” HIGH AND DRY It had already been a long six-weeks for the two man crew on Zero. The journey had started well enough, with the spectacular sight of whales frolicking near the 17-metre yacht. Palmer, who was a long way from his origins as a roofer and carpenter in the South Wales city of Swansea, watched as Dicenta filmed the natural wonder on his phone. And that phone was still in his pocket – and still recording – when the men stopped near the South African harbour of Richards Bay, 150km north of Durban. That recording would later starkly illustrate why the Zero was sitting so much lower in the water when it left South Africa to start sailing east. Because on board was at least 380kg of cocaine, 344kg of MDMA, and 171kg of methamphetamine, which the pair had loaded by hand -- quickly and breathlessly. “We have to take the top ones and put them inside before the other boat comes. Fuck, we are not going to be able to put all this shit in here,” Dicenta said. They estimated it could be more than tonne. They knew it was cocaine and ice. And they had a long way to go. As the crow flies it is around 7,800 km to the Abrolhos – and that is without any issues. But there were issues. The weather was brutal. And a broken cable on the mast almost took Palmer’s head off. And then on arrival, around 2.40am on September 2, they get stuck at Stick. The texts to Roy begin almost immediately. His replies are also increasingly urgent “Drifted a mile … we have no control where we end up,” one text reads. “Where are the girls? Dad worried about [where the] girls are exactly,” Roy asks in reply. “Girls R with us.” The girls were the drugs. The boys on DW140 were the anticipated antidote to this billion-dollar bungle. But hours went by. And they didn’t show. Because despite their years of yachting experience, the unique perils of the Abrolhos had scuppered Jones, Lassiter and Jackson as well – leaving their plan to flood Australia with drugs high and dry. THEIR FATES ARE SEALED With Roy increasingly urgent in his messages, it was already falling dark when DW140 reached the Abrolhos Islands on the evening of September 2. But their well laid plans were already slowly sinking. An attempt by Roy to put the Thai trio in touch directly with the Zero failed, after a wrong number was scribbled down and dialled without success. Phone calls and texts would not go through. And messages kept coming in from Roy. “Go to that exact place.” “He at that landmark.” And so they tried, despite not knowing what the landmark was “It was very dark, I believe it just started to kind of sprinkle, but it was just really dark,” Lassiter later explained. “It just came to a - just a kind of a scraping stop with a loud scraping noise. The boat wasn’t budging, no. “After the last call with John Roy, Gus just turned the phone off just because there was nothing -- everything was out of our control at that point.” While the DW140 waited for the tide, Dicenta and Palmer felt like they could wait no longer. And so using the dinghy attached to the yacht, they began moving the girls, heading east to Burton Island. Once there, the messages to Roy resumed. “Tell your friends to stop f.....g around and come and get us ASAP otherwise I will leave the girls here and get my own taxi out of here,” they warned But taxis are hard to come by on a rocky outcrop 200m long by 150m wide. And so they had to sit and wait and worry. Meanwhile, the Zero, minus its dinghy, had been spotted, reported and boarded – with the identification papers left behind a clear clue of who had been there. A search for those on board was scaled up. And the stranded DW140 was now also attracting attention, with some locals offering the three men on board help to get moving. Pearl farmer Jesse Liddon was one of them. “I suggested that, you know, the normal currency at sea was … beer, and they came up with a six-pack of Tooheys Extra Dry which was very unpopular with the crew,” he said. “A carton would be the minimum payment for any sort of favour.” By 2.45pm, authorities had spotted a tiny white tender perched on the beach of Burton Island by a local, who also saw a man – dressed in a hot pink shirt – waving. Weirdly he was asking him to leave, not to help. By 3.30pm, police were on that beach. And minutes later Dicenta and Palmer were in custody, after the briefest of pursuits stopped in quick time by another local. An elephant seal. “The guys basically had the choice of going through the seal or getting arrested and they ended up choosing to get arrested,” Damien Healy from the Geraldton Volunteer Marine Rescue Service later said. By 5pm, police were removing strands of seaweed covering 40 duffel bags, each packed with the kilos of ice, or coke, or ecstasy. And they also spotted something else. A distinctive blue and white Bayliner, registration DW140, slowly cruising north past the island. A registration check the following day showed the owner as an Angus Jackson from New South Wales. Further probes put the boat in a dry dock, and the owner in Jurien Bay. A roadside arrest, police questioning, quickly followed. “I was scared. Obviously I wanted to distance myself from all of that - that whole incident. Obviously I had no knowledge of any of that, the farther I could get away from it the better I was thinking,” Lassiter would later explain. “I mean, I was - I was - I basically felt numb inside. I mean, just a fear and a panic that, oh my God, here I am.” After the Thai trio were released – along with a listening device in their car, and another at their hotel in Perth – it took police just days to swoop again. Having first looked at the text messages on John Roy’s phone in the UK. This time, Lassiter, Jones and Jackson would not be released – despite protestations of innocence for the years which followed. “It was about a boys’ trip,” Gus Jackson would tell a jury. “Don’t have anything to do with drugs. I don’t buy them. I don’t sell them. I don’t use them. I certainly don’t attempt to possess them.” But a jury disagreed, finding all three of the Thai trio guilty. On hearing the recording of him loading the drugs on board the Zero , Palmer pleaded guilty an hour into his separate trial – with a prosecutor later revealing prison calls had caught the former Ibiza DJ telling contacts how he helped on the yacht voyage. Dicenta, the skipper, abandoned ship last, admitting the charge two weeks after Palmer. Which leaves Roy, serving a 12 year stretch for his part in the Jersey importation. His prison visitors have twice included detectives from the WA Police. And an open arrest warrant will be waiting for him in WA when he is released. “We believe we’ve got fantastic evidence and he will be sentenced here in WA if found guilty,” Deputy Police commissioner Col Blanch has already promised. And some of that evidence might still be out there. Because The Sunday Times has confirmed that in the months after the discovery of the drugs on Burton Island, kilograms more either washed up on nearby beaches or were fished out of the water.

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The exclusive inside story of bungled billion-dollar Abrolhos drug run