- An Olympic kayaker has been found guilty of attempting to smuggle $152 million worth of cocaine into
Australia . - Nathan Baggaley's brother Dru was also found guilty.
- Baggaley won two silver medals at the 2004 Athens
Olympics .
An Australian Olympic kayaker and his brother have been found guilty of attempting to smuggle $152 million worth of cocaine into the country.
Nathan Baggaley, who won two silver medals at the 2004 Athens Olympics, and his brother Dru were charged with attempting to import 650 kilograms of cocaine in 2018.
The men denied the charges, but were found guilty on Thursday after eight hours of deliberations at Brisbane Supreme Court, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
They will be sentenced later this month.
In June 2018, 39-year old Dru and another man, Anthony Draper, were spotted on aerial surveillance cameras collecting the large quantity of cocaine from a foreign ship around 360 kilometers off the coast of New South Wales.
After a dramatic police chase involving the navy and air force, in which Dru was seen throwing packages of the substance overboard, both men were arrested.
Nathan, 45, who was reportedly aware of his brother's plan and assisted him in buying the boat, was also arrested. Prosecutors said he had planned to meet the the pair at a boat ramp and store 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.
However, Draper 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.
Draper pleaded guilty to importing cocaine earlier this year and was given a reduced sentence for testifying against the Baggaley brothers.
Nathan told the court he was given money by Dru to buy the boat and believed it was going to be used to start a "whale-watching business."
Nathan and Dru Baggaley have been charged with drugs offences before.
In 2007, the brothers were arrested for manufacturing and trafficking ecstasy tablets, ABC reported. 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.