Arrests in Perth reveal intricate cocaine smuggling operation with South African ties

200kg of cocaine was discovered in suitcases when two men, one with ties to South Africa, were arrested in Perth in December 2024. (Photo: Australian Federal Police)

By Caryn Dolley

29 Jan 2025

Australian police say a German suspect, who was living in South Africa, was arrested last month after cocaine, night vision goggles and aircraft navigational items were seized from hotel rooms in Perth. He now forms part of an investigation there into whether a syndicate is moving drugs via aircraft.

At about 6pm towards the end of December police officers in Australia pounced. Their target — two men, one of whom the police say has ties to South Africa. The officers arrested the duo, who were intercepted in a car in Perth’s central business district.

Then they got cracking.

The officers searched the men’s hotel rooms in Perth and seized about 200kg of cocaine, as well as other items, including night vision goggles and aviation navigational equipment.

These items are now evidence in an investigation unfolding in Australia into whether an organised crime syndicate has used small aircraft to move masses of cocaine.

German staying in South Africa

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) did not identify the two suspects arrested in December, but a subsequent media report on their appearance in a court named them as Oliver Andreas Herrmann of South Africa and Hamish Scott Falconer of Victoria.

Another report, though, from the Sunday Times Ireland, said Herrmann was German, and Daily Maverick established that his nationality was listed as German on a UK government website.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaGf-UkLo_k

An AFP press release initially said the one arrested suspect — who it turned out was Herrmann — was from South Africa. On Tuesday, 27 January 2025, Daily Maverick asked the AFP for clarity on his nationality.

In response it said: “This man is a German national who was residing in South Africa.” The AFP also updated its press release on the matter to reflect that.

Kinahan cartel report

Meanwhile, the Sunday Times Ireland reported that Hermann, a marathon runner, was also “an international businessman and serial investor” who had money ties to an individual named Christy Kinahan.

Kinahan is allegedly part of the Kinahan cartel, which the US sanctioned in 2022 and which Daily Maverick previously reported on as having ties to South Africa.

Read more: Cocaine, gold and money laundering — Irish cartel’s ‘fingerprints’ lifted in SA

The Sunday Times Ireland reported that Herrman had no previously known links to crime.

Investigation launched

According to the AFP, its investigations into the duo — Herrmann and Falconer — started in October last year.

In a press statement about the arrests, the AFP alleged that Herrmann and Falconer met at Perth Airport the month after investigations into them started, on 17 November.

From there, they drove to Kojonup Airport, which is about 250km south of Perth. According to the AFP, the two then left that airport a short while later and over the following days left Western Australia.

It was alleged that Herrmann returned to Perth on 21 December, and Falconer followed a few days later, on Boxing Day.

Suitcases and airstrip

Falconer then, according to the AFP, “hired a utility vehicle, which investigators observed allegedly transporting multiple suitcases and jerry cans.”

On 27 December, Herrmann allegedly went to the Overlander Airstrip, in Western Australia, “and met a small aircraft”. The next day he returned to Perth where he met with Falconer.

Read more: South Africa’s lucrative drugs highway to the land Down Under

“AFP investigators allege the pair then bought more suitcases, before discarding suitcases and jerry cans in a shopping centre rubbish bin a few hours later,” the Australian police statement said.

Investigators seized those discarded items. It was after those events that Herrmann and Falconer were arrested at about 6pm on 28 December in Perth’s central business district.

Their hotel rooms were subsequently searched.

Cocaine and night vision goggles

The AFP said it seized items in Falconer’s room including “about 200kg of cocaine, in single 1kg blocks, in six suitcases, as well as electronic devices, night vision goggles, an airband VHF radio, and a receipt for the purchase of suitcases”.

Two hundred kilogrammes of cocaine was discovered in suitcases when two men, one with ties to South Africa, were arrested in Perth in December 2024. (Photo: Australian Federal Police)

Herrmann’s room was also searched, and officers allegedly seized “four empty suitcases, aviation navigational equipment, a hardware cryptocurrency wallet, and other electronic devices”.

The AFP statement added: “Further investigations are ongoing to identify the link between the seized illicit drugs and the small aircraft which arrived at the Overlander Airstrip.”

When Herrmann and Falconer appeared in an Australian court after their arrests, they reportedly did not apply for bail and are expected back in court in May.

Read more: Meth hidden in mats from SA linked to Chinese million-dollar money laundering gang in Australia

It was not clear if they were given a chance to plead or state their versions of what transpired. AFP Inspector Chris Colley said the arrests suggested a syndicate was active.

“Illicit drug use in Australia bankrolls dangerous and brutal criminals who undermine our national security and our economy, and make our suburbs and roads less safe,” he said.

“The AFP has prevented these individuals — and an alleged organised crime syndicate that is likely responsible for this endeavour — from profiting from the distribution of this dangerous drug.”

Intercepted shampoo

In December, the same month that Herrmann and Falconer were arrested, there was another drug crackdown in Australia involving South Africa. Daily Maverick reported that an airline worker in Australia was arrested after a flight from South Africa when police officers found drugs concealed in shampoo.

Read more: Bad hair day — Australian airline worker arrested for drugs concealed in shampoo on flight from SA

The airline employee had allegedly imported 4.1 litres of gamma butyrolactone. Australian police previously described gamma butyrolactone as “an illicit substance commonly known as liquid ecstasy or ‘coma in a bottle’”.

Read more: Five suspected traffickers arrested at OR Tambo airport in sting after R500m cocaine flown from SA to Australia

The issue of cocaine being smuggled on planes has come up before. Daily Maverick reported on how, in 2023, Australian police arrested five suspected traffickers after R500-million in cocaine landed there on a plane from South Africa.

Police in this country subsequently arrested another five suspects, connected to that case, at OR Tambo International Airport. DM

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