Drug arrest yachtie also involved in sailor disappearance in 2007
by Sail-World Cruising on 22 Oct 2010
Police have seized an estimated $160m worth of drugs from this yacht off the Queensland coast. SW
One of the yachties arrested last week over Australia's third-largest ever police drug haul has been in the news before in Sail-World, the previous time for the mysterious disappearance of a Coffs Harbour sailor.
Andrew Witton from Coff's Harbour in New South Wales was sailing from Tahiti to the Galapagos Islands with his friend Simon Golding, one of those arrested last week, when he disappeared from his yacht, Kaileia, on January 13, 2007. His body has never been found. (See http://www.sail-world.com/Cruising/Criminal-charges-after-MOB-incident?/64019!full_story)
An inquest at the State Coroner's Court in Sydney's suburb of Glebe later heard that Witton and Golding were about 300nm south of Pitcairn Island, without an HF radio, when Mr Witton vanished. According to Golding, he was asleep when Witton vanished, but earlier comments and his behaviour after the incident aroused police suspicions.
In December 2009, the New South Wales Coroner recommended the disappearance of a yachtsman be referred to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to see if criminal charges should be laid.
In last weeks operation, Australian authorities cornered two sailing boats - a yacht and a catamaran - with 464 kilos of cocaine, worth about $160,000, on board.
After a tip-off from the other side of the Pacific, authorities watched the boats progress and pounced once the yacht docked at the Scarborough Marina on Tuesday.
However, the catamaran was still at sea. The New South Wales Water Police and the Customs and Border Protection Service surrounded the catamaran, then about 200 nautical miles off the coast.
Customs and Border Protection officers detained two men, believed to be from Costa Rica and Germany, on board.
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