Charter owner charged over sophisticated ‘black flight’
Lloyd Jones |
People-smuggling charges have been laid against an air-charter operator after two fugitives were allegedly flown to Indonesia on a lucrative “black flight” deal.
Australian Federal Police charged the man on Wednesday after executing search warrants in southeast and central Queensland.
The man was the owner of a central Queensland aviation company and co-ordinated a network of flights to move the men from NSW to Indonesia, Detective Superintendent Adrian Telfer said on Thursday.
The final flight out of Australia was on November 17, with the aircraft operating as a black flight out of Port Stewart in far-north Queensland with its transponder deactivated, he said.
The flight allegedly landed in Merauke, South Papua, where Indonesian officials detained the two pilots – an Australian and an Indonesian – and the two undeclared passengers.
The two passengers were wanted in NSW.
One, aged 34, was wanted over two outstanding arrest warrants for kidnapping offences, NSW Police said.
The other, aged 35, was sought on two outstanding arrest warrants including for the supply of a commercial quantity of drugs.
The AFP alleges the 43-year-old owner of a Rockhampton-based aviation company oversaw the sophisticated people-smuggling operation to help the fugitives escape.
That involved co-ordinating helicopter and fixed-wing flights using different aviation companies over a week to take the men from Orange, in regional NSW, to far-north Queensland.
The AFP raided the man’s Woolshed property in southwest Queensland on Wednesday.
The people-smuggling charges carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
The two pilots and the wanted men remain in Indonesia in immigration detention and the AFP is yet to interview them.
The amount of money involved in funding such a complex operation would be “extensive”, Det Supt Telfer said.
Any criminals seeking to take advantage of north Queensland communities should be warned they faced a much stronger law enforcement presence in the region, he said.
“Black flights attempting to exploit the remoteness of north Queensland can try to fly under the radar by turning off transponders, but every time they land and take off at a remote airstrip, they attract attention.”
Aviation company staff should contact police if approached to organise a charter flight that seemed suspicious, Det Supt Telfer said.
The aviation company manager is scheduled to face Ipswich Magistrates Court on Thursday.
AAP