According to the reports said on Thursday, the Australian police were helped by a giant seal to catch an international drug-smuggling ring; it is said that the seal was pretty angry at being disturbed. The police have captured a tonne of a drug, which included ecstasy, cocaine, and methamphetamine. The whole crime was unearthed on the 3rd of September when two men were caught hiding on an island, as on the previous day their yacht had hit an island reef off Western Australia. One of the two convicts was a British national and the other one was from France.
According to the reports of Australian media, after finding a yacht in that situation the police had launched a rescue operation. And this was when they found the two smugglers, 51-year-old French man Antonie Dicenta and 34-year-old Graham Palmer of Britain, at the island west of the town Geraldton. Their escape from the police was thwarted by the seal.
After the crash, the smugglers had reached the island on an inflatable dinghy. They had allegedly camouflaged the drugs under seaweed.
After they realized that the police have found them, they tried to escape from the place, but were scuppered by a ‘big, huge seal’.
According to the reports of BBC, Damien Healy, the second in command of the Geraldton Volunteer Marine Rescue Service, told ABC Radio that the smugglers, while escaping, woke up the giant seal, which jumped up with its big chest and bellowed at them. They had the choices of either getting convicted or going through the furious giant seal. Well, they chose to be arrested rather than taking on the annoyed giant. The officers seized drugs of the approximate worth of $668,000.
Not only these two, an American, an Australian, and a Briton are also connected to the entire racket, as they appeared in front of the court on Thursday.
The three men were 45-year-old Jason Lassiter, 35-year-old Scott Felix Jones, and 50-year-old Angus Bruce Jackson. As per the news website Perth Now, Chris Dawson, the Western Australia Police Commissioner has stated that these three were the buyers of the drugs.
He also added that they had successfully shattered a big international drug syndicate and the police were still working on the matter with the help of international partners like UK’s National Crime Agency.
This event was termed as ‘colossal’ drugs haul by Michelle Roberts, the Police Minister. According to ABC Radio, Roberts has also said that they weren’t aware of the actual location of the drugs, and there might be a possibility that if they hadn’t been caught, some of the drugs could have entered into the West Australian community. He also expressed his doubt that the number of drugs which was caught was for the east coast and right around Australia.
