Tag Archives: oceania

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Six charged with trying to import tonne of cocaine on boat

Six men from Central and South America are facing the potential of life in prison for allegedly planning to import a tonne of cocaine into Australia on a boat that was stopped in French Polynesia.

Police allege the boat, called the MV Raider, was modified so that it had three separate hiding places for drugs and other illegal goods specially built in to evade detection from authorities while at sea.

"It was custom-made purely for the importation of illicit commodities," Commander Brett James of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said of the boat.

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Police uncover one of the hiding places on the ship.

"They were very sophisticated and designed to avoid law enforcement detection."

Authorities in French Polynesia allegedly stopped the 40-metre boat, which had set off from Central America, in January and removed 4.8 tonnes of cocaine.

It is alleged the boat was planning to travel to Australia and rendezvous with an Australia-based crew off the coast of NSW.

However, police intercepted the MV Raider about 180 nautical miles off the coast late last month, where the crew was told they would not be granted entry into Australia.

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The MV Raider is towed into Sydney Harbour after making a distress call.

On March 12, the ship's crew placed a distress call claiming it had mechanical issues and was low on food and water.

It was escorted the next day into Sydney Harbour, where Australian Federal Police raided the boat, while border force officers detained the men as unlawful arrivals and took them to Villawood Detention Centre.

It was during the search that police found the specially built holds, which are suspected to have previously held about six tonnes of cocaine.

While cocaine wasn't found on the ship, police seized a number of items, including electronic devices, that they claim prove the group was attempting to import a tonne of cocaine into Australia.

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Police believe the hiding places were specifically built to smuggle drugs.

Last weekend, police arrested and charged six crew members, five from Honduras and one from Ecuador, with conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of border-controlled drugs.

This carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment if the men are found guilty.

The men faced court today, where they didn't apply for bail.

The ship has been moored in Birchgrove since its arrival into Sydney, but will now be seized by the AFP.

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Millions of Aussies to suffer further after major bank’s fresh rates warning

Interest rates could peak at an 18-year high in a matter of months, according to modelling from one of Australia's biggest banks.

Westpac, citing the continuing war in the Middle East and high oil prices, is now forecasting mortgage holders will be hit by three more rate hikes – in May, June and August – after already having two to start 2026.

That is two more cash rate increases than previously predicted.

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Interest rates have already risen from 3.60 per cent at the end of 2025 to 4.15 per cent, but with three more hikes they would hit 4.85 per cent in August – a level that hasn't been reached since late 2008.

Westpac chief economist Luci Ellis said even government measures like halving the fuel excise, announced today, may not halt the inevitable.

"This shift reflects the longer disruption to and slower recovery in fuel supply assumed… with the Strait of Hormuz essentially closed for eight weeks and traffic recovering only slowly after that," she said.

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"It also reflects the surprisingly rapid pass-through of higher fuel and other oil-derived product prices into other prices in Australia.

She said she felt the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) would have no choice but to pass on the pressure to millions of Australians in the form of a rate rise.

She said the fuel excise would reduce the short-term outlook for headline inflation, but she still said it was likely to peak at 5.4 per cent.

Inflation currently sits at 3.7 per cent, although the latest figures are for February and therefore don't take into account the economic shock caused by the Middle East conflict.

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"The (fuel excise) announcement also does not affect prices of other oil-related products, including aviation fuel and various plastics, or any price increases from damage to gas and other production facilities in non-combatant Gulf states," Ellis said.

She also said the cash rate rising could lead to higher unemployment, up to five per cent, and that Australia's economic growth would most likely slow.

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