A large-scale drug trafficking operation through Esperance and other regional WA towns has resulted in a lengthy prison sentence for a former Australian soldier who served in East Timor.
David Bryn Godfrey, 51, was sentenced to 25 years’ and six months imprisonment at the Perth District Court on Monday for his involvement in bringing more than half a tonne of cocaine into Western Australia.
As a qualified mechanic with a recreational boat license and diver’s ticket, Godfrey’s role in the crime syndicate was to operate boats for drug collection.
The court heard on June 4, 2023, Godfrey and an accomplice scoped out locations around Esperance to launch a boat they had repaired in Perth for a previous aborted drug job to Albany.
The next morning in the overcast and wet conditions, the pair launched the vessel at Bandy Creek harbour and pretended to fish in Esperance Bay until dusk.
The court heard they had been given instructions to wait for a cargo ship that was coming into the bay and to wait for crew members to fall asleep.
Encrypted instructions from multiple people, including someone aboard the ship, were relayed to Godfrey who was steering.
A package was dropped off the ship and Godfrey and his partner used a gaffer pole and rope to drag the package through the water.
The pair left the package containing around 145 kilograms of cocaine, with a purity of 60 to 90 per cent, at an address in Esperance before they made the journey back to Queensland.
Five days later, police intercepted 68 kilograms of the drugs when they conducted a vehicle stop on a Ford Ranger near the SA border.
Police seized another 77 kilograms of cocaine at the Esperance address later that night.
Godfrey was paid $20,000 for his role and his “employer” told him he could leave Australia if he was worried about being arrested.
At the time, police were unaware of his involvement.
Two months later, police arrested Godfrey in Kalbarri after they found a net weight of 488 kilograms of 86.3 per cent pure cocaine, worth $45 – $60 million at an Airbnb where he was staying.
On that occasion, Godfrey and his two accomplices were given $130,000 in cash to buy a car and a boat which they later steered for five hours to retrieve waterproof bags in the ocean, containing the drugs.
The court heard it took eight to nine hours to return to Kalbarri due to bad conditions and the added weight of the drugs.
District Court judge Mark Herron said Godfrey’s involvement in the importation of drugs and a major national drug syndicate had the potential to cause a great deal of harm to the Australian community.
He said Godfrey became involved for money and said his actions were at the more serious end of such offence.
While others played various roles… without your particular skills and abilities it is unlikely the drug packages would have been brought into Western Australia and been received by the drug enterprise.
Judge Herron.
He considered Godfrey’s difficult upbringing and his troubles after his time spent serving in East Timor, which Godfrey said resulted in the use of methylamphetamine to cope.
Judge Herron said he accepted Godfrey had shown some remorse.
But he said he did not accept that Godfrey had limited knowledge of his illegal activities, as he had claimed.
Godfrey’s sentence was backdated to October 2023, when he was first remanded in custody.
He will be eligible for parole in 2041.
