Aussie Olympic medal winner and world champion drops bombshell about his involvement in $200million cocaine smuggling operation

Disgraced former Olympic kayaker Nathan Baggaley has pleaded guilty to his role in a bungled plot to import $200million worth of cocaine into Australia.

Nathan Baggaley and his brother Dru were both due to stand trial later this month on charges of attempting to import a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug.

The pair were accused of trying to smuggle up to $200million worth of cocaine into Australia from a foreign freighter back in 2018.

When the boat Dru Baggaley and another man, Anthony Draper, were travelling on was intercepted by an Australian Navy vessel, the pair flung the packages allegedly carrying cocaine overboard.

It’s estimated the bundles recovered by authorities contained 650kg of white powder and cocaine.

Baggaley (pictured) won two silver medals at the Olympics and three golds at the kayaking world championships in 2002, 2003 and 2005

During his arraignment at Brisbane Supreme Court on Thursday, Nathan entered a plea of guilty to the charge.

His brother Dru had pleaded guilty to the same charge on Wednesday.

A trial for the pair, scheduled to begin on October 28, was delisted following the plea.

Both brothers were hit with the charges following an attempt to import more than 500kg of cocaine into Australia back in 2018.

The Crown contended Nathan bought an inflatable boat which he fitted out with $10,000 worth of gear, including a satellite phone and GPS system.

He was also alleged to have communicated with his brother on an encrypted phone, using the alias ‘Thunderbutt’.

Dru and another man, Anthony Draper, were alleged to have used the boat to retrieve the packages of cocaine from a foreign freighter some 360km off the coast of Queensland.

The drugs had an estimated street value of $200m.

The Crown contended packages of cocaine were dumped into the sea after Dru and Draper attempted to evade marine authorities.

Draper was sentenced to 13 years in jail for his role in the plot.

Nathan and Dru Baggaley initially pleaded not guilty to their respective charges during a trial in 2021.

Pictured: Some of the drugs allegedly recovered by the Australian Navy when they intercepted a boat driven by Baggaley’s brother Dru and another man in 2018 

Nathan Baggaley is pictured leaving a Sydney court in 2015

A jury found them guilty – with Nathan being sentenced to 25 years’ jail and Dru being handed a 28-year jail term.

But the brothers successfully appealed their convictions earlier this year, with Queensland’s Court of Appeal ordering a retrial for both of them.

In their published reasons, the Court of Appeal stated the trial counsel for Dru Baggaley failed to ask questions at trial to elicit evidence about the phone.

It included allegations of how Draper had posted the phone to Dru and asked him to buy a SIM card and charge card.

‘No questions were asked as to the appellant’s having done that, or as to his having inserted the SIM card and the charge card into the phone at his parents’ house,’ the judgment states.

‘This omission was significant because the ownership of the phone was crucial to the Crown case against the appellant.’

‘Failing to give the appellant the opportunity to give evidence about his coming into possession of the phone; his buying a SIM card and recharge card for it, and then passing it over to Draper was to fail to allow the appellant to put a very material part of his case before the jury.’

The court was told Dru believed the packets actually contained tobacco.