Olympic medallist Nathan Baggaley and his brother Dru have been secretly recorded having a conversation at Arthur Gorrie prison at the visiting section when Nathan visited Dru on 15 August 2018. Dru Baggaley was arrested along with his co-accused Anthony Draper in July for the importation of cocaine.
Documents filed to the Supreme Court show that Nathan came to visit Dru at the prison after Dru’s arrest to see how he was doing however the pair were unaware that their conversation was secretly being recorded by the Australian Federal Police.
During their secretly recorded chat Dru is heard telling Nathan about his arrest and that a, “Black boat. All with f***ing army guys in it. They had like balaclavas…f***ing machine guns, like army-coloured machine guns. So they just come and it was all over. Just pointing guns at us. Don’t f***ing move, I’ll blow your f***ing head off.”
Dru told Nathan that, “Dribbsey the scumbag set me up. He asked me to buy a boat and told me that he and his mate were going to go out to sea to collect tobacco worth over one million bucks”. It is believed that “Dribbsey” is Anthony Draper. Dru goes on to tell Nathan that, “Dribbsey said if I got the boat ready for him that I could have the boat or I might have to pay half of it back to him over time…but on the night Dribbsey told me his mate had pulled out and then he asked me to come get him from the airport and drive him down to the boat at Brunswick Heads”. Nathan replies, “Far out what a piece of s*it”. Dru then told Nathan, “Dribbsey needed fuel last minute because his mate was supposed to have fuel or something so I drove him around getting fuel….once we got to the boat at Bruns Dribbsey told me that I had to come out with him as his mate had pulled out and he needed help out at sea.”
Nathan then says to Dru, “I had no idea where you were or what was going on…I realised the boat was gone and no one had heard from you so it was weird.”
Dru told Nathan that he didn’t want to go out to sea as he wasn’t prepared and he knew he would get seasick and would be pretty useless. Dru told Nathan that out at sea he was “spewing his guts up” for hours seasick and laying on the floor of the boat “F***ed.” Dru described the moment when they met up with the ship and he said, “At the time I was vomiting non-stop and hanging over the edge of the boat. Dribbsey drove the boat up to this ship and they unloaded a net into the ocean and left without saying f**k all….Dribbsey then cut the net to get the parcels and he was yelling at me non-stop to help him but I was f***ed and I told him to f**k off as I just wanted to go home.”
Dru told Nathan that he thought the plan was to pick up tobacco and that at no stage did he ever think the plan involved coke and if he did have any suspicions he would “not have helped Dribbsey.”
The two brothers discuss the boat and how they had begun to setup a whale watching business using this boat. Tony Kimmings, the barrister for Nathan Baggaley, states in court documents that the chat, “provides insight to the event of” Nathan’s lack of knowledge of the plan and “intentions in relation to the boat.”
Later in the conversation Dru told his brother about the questions the police asked him after he was arrested. Dru said, “And the cop said to me, he goes ‘Oh, what was it like? Big decision throwing all the coke overboard.’ I f**king thought it was tobacco. I didn’t two sh**s about it.”
Nathan told Dru that the police had spoken to him and said that they believed Dru was “just a puppet” who had been put up to it by others. Dru goes on to tell Nathan that he’s p***ed at Dribbsey and that Dribbsey has told Dru to shut his mouth and not to say anything to police otherwise his life is in danger.
Both Dru and Nathan Baggaley maintain their innocence and are awaiting trial.