- An ex-Olympic medalist has been jailed for 25 years for trying to smuggle drugs into Australia.
- Nathan Baggaley was convicted of attempting to smuggle 512 kilograms of cocaine, worth around $152 million.
- Baggaley, now 45, won two silver medals at the 2004 Athens Olympics competing in kayaking.
An Olympic kayaker has been jailed for 25 years for trying to smuggle $152 million worth of cocaine into Australia.
Nathan Baggaley, who won two silver medals at the 2004 Athens Olympics, was arrested in 2018 alongside his brother, Dru, after Dru and another man, Anthony Draper, were spotted in a boat collecting 650-kilograms of cocaine from a foreign ship off the coast of New South Wales.
Nathan had helped purchase the boat and had planned to meet the pair at a boat ramp and store the drugs.
Thirty packages, which had been thrown overboard by Dru and Draper during a dramatic police chase, were recovered by the Navy, while others washed ashore at various locations on the east coast of Australia.
The parcels collectively contained 512 kilograms of pure cocaine, held within 650 kilograms of white powder, with an approximate street value of $152 million dollars ($200 million AUD).
The Baggaley brothers had denied trying to import the drugs.
Dru had claimed he thought he was collecting tobacco, not cocaine, and that he had been kidnapped by Draper and coerced into helping him.
Nathan, however, instead said he was recruited by Dru to drive the boat and had been told they were going to use it to pick up marijuana.
Both were found guilty at Brisbane Supreme Court in April.
At the Supreme Court on Tuesday, Justice Ann Lyons sentenced Nathan to 25 years in jail with a non-parole period of 16 years, reports Vice.
Dru received a 28-year jail term, with a non-parole period of 16 years.
Lyons described Dru, 39, as the "principal organizer" of the plot, but declared that Nathan, 45, was "actively involved" and was set to be rewarded generously for his role.
Their motivation was "purely for financial gain," she said.
Both Nathan and Dru Baggaley have a long history of drugs offences.
In 2007, the brothers were arrested for manufacturing and trafficking ecstasy tablets. As a result, Nathan was handed a nine-year prison sentence with a non-parole period of five years.
In 2013, two years after being released, Nathan was then arrested and charged with manufacturing and attempting to import hallucinogenic drugs. He was later sentenced to two years and three months in prison.