The brother of dual Olympic silver medallist Nathan Baggaley, who is accused of attempting to import half a tonne of pure cocaine, has been denied bail.

April 15, 2020

An Olympic kayaker’s brother, who is accused of a bungled bid to smuggle half-a-tonne of pure cocaine, has been refused bail for a second time by a Queensland court.

Dru Anthony Baggaley, the younger brother of dual Olympic silver medallist Nathan Baggaley, was arrested after he and another man allegedly dumped 39 packages of drugs worth more than $150 million at sea during a dramatic sea chase off the northern NSW coast in July 2018.

The 38-year-old was charged with attempting to import a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug but he says he thought it was just tobacco he had agreed to collect from a foreign vessel in international waters.

Baggaley applied for bail in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Wednesday saying a covertly recorded conversation between himself and Nathan – before his brother was charged with aiding or abetting the alleged cocaine importation – was fresh evidence that weakened the Crown’s case against him.

He said the recording proved his intent was to collect tobacco and not cocaine, and when coupled with the lengthy delay in bringing his case to trial justified his release.

Baggaley also cited difficulties preparing his defence while in custody, saying he was only able to access a single faulty laptop computer at the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre, which often lost information due to a virus.

But his bid for freedom was denied with Justice Peter Flanagan finding Baggaley remained an unacceptable risk of not appearing before a court if released.

Baggaley was previously refused bail in August 2018 after the same court found it was unlikely he would have travelled so far out to sea to collect illegal tobacco, even if there was money to be made.

In refusing bail, Justice Flanagan accepted Baggaley, who represented himself at court, was facing difficulties preparing for his trial in custody but noted he had managed to produce an intelligent 72-page submission for his bail hearing.

Justice Flanagan also dismissed Baggaley’s concerns about delay saying when one looks at the facts “it is evident the applicant was caught red-handed by the authorities in the importation of a substance, which upon analysis proved to be cocaine”.

He said given the seriousness of the charge and that Baggaley was accused of being the “prime mover”, the case had not progressed to a point where he was at risk of spending more time on remand than he was likely to be sentenced to if found guilty.

“Even if (Baggaley) is viewed as a courier only any sentence for such a large shipment would be lengthy,” he said.