'Greedy' smuggler reveals why coke import turned deadly

A superyacht tour operator told police an 84kg cocaine importation turned out so badly because the two divers sent to retrieve the drugs, one of whom drowned, could not speak English. James Blake Blee, 64, was recruited into the criminal enterprise after meeting a man in Bali in February 2022 and seeing him later in Dubai to discuss the plan. "How hard and how nefarious can it be?" he thought to himself, according to agreed facts filed with Sydney's Downing Centre District Court. The job ended up being more difficult than he imagined, with one of the divers sent to retrieve cocaine hidden in a ship's hull in Newcastle harbour later found drowned. The fate of the second diver is still uncertain. Blee smuggled Brazilians Bruno Borges Martins and Jhoni Fernandes Da Silva aboard his boat from Bali to Darwin in April 2022 before the diving operation the next month. He trained and equipped them before they swam under the hull of the bulk carrier Areti Gr Majuro, a ship carrying toasted soybean meal docked at the port. Mr Martins, then 31, was found the following morning floating in the water surrounded by 42 bricks of cocaine. Mr Da Silva was thought to have escaped with millions of dollars in cocaine but is now believed to be dead. Blee told police the fact the two divers could not speak English was a reason why the plan "went so bad on so many levels". "We would sit there with their phone with a Portuguese-to-English translator," he said. On Monday, he appeared by video-link from Clarence jail with a book and a coffee as he watched his sentence hearing at the Sydney court. He has pleaded guilty to importing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug and people smuggling. According to the agreed facts of the case, he was offered $300,000 for his assistance with two thirds of this paid up-front. He spent about $30,000 equipping the two divers with police finding $170,000 hidden at his Cairns home, including in his freezer and a crocodile hand puppet. Arrested at Cairns airport about to board a flight to Singapore on May 11, 2022, he was extradited to NSW where he explained to police that "greed and stupidity" got him into his predicament. After receiving no income during 2021, he had to "take on the dodgy work", he told police. He described himself as the "linchpin" behind the local logistics but said he communicated with two "kingpins", in South America and Australia when planning the operation. On Monday, defence barrister Andrew Boe argued Blee should only be held criminally culpable for a single package he received from Mr Da Silva, then repackaged and sent on for distribution. The 42 bricks seized by police from the water near Mr Martins' body contained 42.1kg of cocaine which had 82.5 per cent purity. While the precise weight of Mr Da Silva's package is not known, Blee has told police it contained the same number of bricks. Judge Troy Anderson suggested Blee was trying to walk back some of his admissions by disputing he was culpable for the entire shipment. "It seems to me ... that your client is trying to have his cake and eat it too," he told Mr Boe. Crown prosecutor Katrina Curry submitted Blee's offence was "objectively serious" and his role was not limited. Blee is due to be sentenced on Tuesday. His son James Lake-Kusviandy Blee is on bail awaiting trial after pleading not guilty to aiding and abetting his father in the importation and dealing with more than $100,000 from the proceeds of crime.