James Blake ‘Jimmy' Blee, the man behind the cocaine-smuggling plot that saw a Brazilian rebreather diver die and another go on the run in Australia in 2022, has been jailed for a maximum of 11 years and three months.
The sentence was passed on 26 November, after Blee had pleaded guilty to illegally importing cocaine and smuggling the two Brazilian divers into the country. Blee, 64, a former superyacht tour operator from Queensland, was appearing before Judge Troy Anderson at the District Court of New South Wales, Australia's biggest trial court.
The narcotics were imported in the hull of a bulk-carrier that docked in the port of Newcastle in May 2022, as reported at the time on Divernet.
Blee, from Cairns, had arranged for Brazilian divers Bruno Borges-Martins, 31, and Jhoni Fernandes Da Silva, 32, to be smuggled into Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory by boat from Indonesia before having them driven south to Newcastle.
Blee, himself a scuba diver, had bought dive-gear worth Aus $12,000 (£6,140) including a closed-circuit rebreather for the men, before realising that they were not trained to use it, the court was told. Blee had trained them himself on two separate occasions at Warners Bay and Swansea, it was stated by national press reporting on the court proceedings.
On 19 May, Blee had taken the men to Newcastle so that they could retrieve the drugs. One package was recovered but police later found a second package, containing 42 1kg bricks of cocaine, washed up in the port alongside the body of Borges-Martins.
Da Silva was spotted on CCTV cameras but never traced – it is thought that he might have got away with some of the cocaine. Blee was caught later while trying to escape to Singapore.
The judge noted that the diver’s death could not be blamed on Blee. He also made clear that Blee had not sourced the drugs or secreted them onto the vessel but had been contracted to extract them, for which he had expected to be paid AUS $300,000 (£151,000). The plan had been suggested to him in Indonesia, where much of his yachting work was carried out.
According to the judge, Blee’s “nefarious” plan had been motivated less by greed than the desire to save a business that had been severely affected by the Covid pandemic.
The sentence for drug-importation includes a non-parole period of seven years and three months, but with time already served Blee will be eligible to apply for parole by November 2029. The sentence includes a maximum 12 months’ imprisonment for people-smuggling.
Blee’s son, James Lake-Kusviandy Blee, 23, is on bail awaiting trial after pleading not guilty to one count of aiding and abetting his father in the importation of drugs, and to another of dealing with more than $100,000 from the proceeds of crime.
Also on Divernet: CCR diver ‘left to die’ by cocaine traffickers, Coke-smuggling probe: a tale of 3 divers, Cocaine diver death: man arrested
