A St Georges Basin man arrested as part of a record $312 million cocaine bust off the NSW South Coast in 2017, has been found not guilty of conspiring to import a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
David Wren, 69, was found not guilty by Judge Peter Zahra in Sydney Downing Centre District Court in a trial which started in early February.
Wren was among three men arrested at Sanctuary Point by Australian Federal Police (AFP) on February 3, 2017 when a multinational police operation intercepted a yacht off the South Coast, seizing 1.4 tonnes of cocaine.
The trio was arrested in an operation involving an AFP investigation supported by the New Zealand Customs Service (NZCS), Organised Financial Crime Agency of New Zealand (OFCANZ), the Fijian Transnational Crime Unit, French Polynesian authorities and Australian Border Force (ABF).
Three other men were charged with serious drug importation offences as a result of the investigation.
Police alleged a sailing vessel, the Elakha, travelled from New Zealand to a mothership in the South Pacific Ocean in January 2017 to collect the drugs.
Royal Australian Navy ship HMAS Bathurst intercepted the Elakha shortly before midnight on February 2, 2017 with Maritime Border Command (MBC) personnel boarding the vessel, and detaining the two crew members - a New Zealand man and a dual Swiss-Fijian national under the Maritime Powers Act.
Officers found a number of black bags containing a large quantity of blocks, with initial testing returning a positive result for cocaine with an estimated weight of approximately 1422 kilograms with a street value of approximately $312 million.
Police alleged Wren was one three men who intended to launch a motor vessel in the Shoalhaven to meet the Elakha at sea before returning to shore with the drugs.
Judge Zahra dismissed the charge against Wren after trial on June 13 in Sydney Downing Centre District Court.
Read more: Crime/Court
