Kiwi sailor Hamish Thompson, 70, to serve life in prison after being caught in record-breaking 1.4 tonne cocaine bust

Kiwi sailor Hamish Edmond Thompson [inset] was given a life sentence after being caught by the Australian Federal Police with 1.4 tonnes of cocaine on his yacht Elakha in February 2017. Photo / AFP

An aging Kiwi sailor caught in a record-breaking Australian cocaine bust will probably be in prison for the rest of his life, according to the judges who rejected his last-ditch legal appeal.

Hamish Edmond Thompson was at the helm of his yacht Elakha when the Australian Federal Police (AFP) found 1.4 tonnes of the drugs stowed away on the 13-metre vessel in February 2017.

The haul of plastic-wrapped 1kg packages was conservatively valued at around $500 million.

“That would... be about probably about twice the amount that I was told that there would be on that boat, okay, eh,” Thompson told AFP officers.

“I had no idea at all, even I was shocked.”

Thompson was later found guilty of conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of cocaine and in 2020 received a life sentence with a non-parole period of 22 years.

But in 2023, Thompson appealed on a number of grounds - including an allegation that his trial lawyer was incompetent.

Late last year, the Supreme Court of New South Wales ruled that while the conduct of Thompson’s lawyer was “professionally unsatisfactory”, there was no miscarriage of justice.

Thompson is now 70 but his advancing years and deteriorating health were also not deemed a reason to reduce his prison time.

Hamish Thompson, pictured aged 46 when he was one of the men involved in a $285 million cocaine drugs bust in Australia. NZH 15Jul19 -

“Consideration of [Thompson’s] age, which carries a likelihood that he will not see another day of freedom, cannot be permitted to justify the imposition of an unacceptably inappropriate sentence,” the Supreme Court wrote.

“The imposition of a life sentence in [Thompson’s] case was almost inevitable, given the scale and brazen nature of the criminality involved.”

The Supreme Court judgment also revealed that Thompson and five co-accused had been under surveillance by law enforcement for three years.

There had been two previous attempts to import drugs into Australia in 2014 and 2015.

On each occasion, the Elakha was under surveillance sailing from New Zealand and across the Pacific Ocean to various ports in the islands.

In the third attempt in 2017, Thompson left New Zealand on the Elakha and around January 17, 2017 took a delivery of 1.4 tonnes of cocaine from a “mother ship” at a point south of Tonga.

The Elakha then sailed towards the east coast of Australia before being intercepted by the Australian Navy about 210 nautical miles from the coastline of New South Wales.

Located inside the cabin were 43 large hessian bags each containing 35 to 37 blocks of compressed cocaine. The total weight of 1.4 tonnes was valued at $500m if sold by the kilogram, or up to $1.3 billion if sold by the gram at street level.

At the time, Thompson’s arrest in 2017 was the biggest cocaine bust in Australian history and described by the Supreme Court as drug offending of the “highest order”.

The news shocked boaties at the Tauranga Bridge Marina, where Thompson was well-known as a friendly fellow.

“They were great guys and everybody around here did like them,” one local woman told the Bay of Plenty Times newspaper.

The Elakha yacht carried 1.4 tonnes of cocaine from a ship in the South Pacific before being intercepted off the Australian coastline.

Remarkably, it wasn’t the first time that Thompson had set the new record for the largest cocaine bust in Australia.

Nearly 20 years earlier, Thompson was sailing a 12m ketch called the Ngaire Wha when he was stopped by the AFP just north of Sydney.

He was with a fellow New Zealander called “Sir” Thomas Graham Fry (he changed his first name by deed poll) and they had just finished a yacht race around the Bay of Islands, before setting sail for Australia.

However, the AFP had the Ngaire Wha under surveillance by sea and air. After leaving the Bay of Islands, Thompson’s vessel was tracked to a rendezvous with another boat, the Bora Bora II, which had sailed from Columbia.

The AFP was waiting when the Ngaire Wha arrived in Patonga, just north of Sydney, at 3.30am on February 1, 2000.

On deck were Thompson and Fry. Stowed inside was 502kg of cocaine, by far the biggest cocaine seizure in Australia at that time.

The pair and six others were convicted of importing cocaine after a seven-month trial. Fry was sentenced to life imprisonment although he is eligible for parole in 2025.

Thompson was to serve a minimum of 16 years, although this was later cut to 13 years.

A psychologist’s report for the sentencing hearing considered Thompson had “some insight into the gravity of his offending” and a “strong resolve to refrain from future criminal activities”.

He was released on parole in 2013, and returned to New Zealand. But within a year, Thompson had started plotting his next big score.

His arrival at Auckland International Airport had triggered a red flag for Customs officers at the border.

While nothing was found in a search of his luggage, an intelligence analyst decided to take a closer look.

They discovered Thompson bought a 9ha farm in Gisborne in 2014, and then a yacht moored in Tauranga.

While there could be an innocent explanation, if the old sea dog was settling down for a quiet life, the circumstances were too similar to his last escapade to ignore.

Customs put a surveillance team on Thompson but covert investigations are expensive and can run for months, if not years, without success.

They knew if anything was going to happen, his 13m yacht would be involved. The Elakha was moored at the Tauranga Marina and a decision was made to plant a tracking device inside it.

As long as the battery lasted, Customs would be able to track the boat’s every move by GPS.

Then the AFP called. They were looking for someone with a certain profile.

There had been a surge in cocaine to Australia coming from cartels in South America and Mexico, often on small vessels through the South Pacific.

Did Customs know anyone? In August 2014, Customs told the AFP about Thompson, the Elakha, and their belief he was preparing to sail into the South Pacific for a cocaine run.

Successfully planting a tracking device inside the yacht established the credibility of Customs and the joint investigation eventually led to the 1.4 tonne cocaine bust three years later.

Thompson will be nearly 85 before he can apply for early release on parole in 2039.

Australian Federal Police seized 1.4 tonnes of cocaine found on the yacht Elakha in February 2017.

Hamish Edmond Thompson

• 1954: Born as twin son to Christchurch doctor. One of seven children in a high-achieving family.

• 1977: Sentenced to three and a half years in prison for attempting to smuggle 5000 cannabis sticks into Australia.

• 1992: Sentenced to nine years in prison for importing $2.7m of hashish into Australia.

• 2000: Caught trying to smuggle 500kg of cocaine into Australia. Serves 13 years in prison.

• 2014: Customs and Australia Federal Police start joint investigation into Thompson and his yacht moored in Tauranga.

• 2017: Caught trying to smuggle 1.4 tonnes of cocaine into Australia.

• 2019: Convicted of conspiracy to import cocaine after three-month trial. Sentenced to life imprisonment.

• 2023: Supreme Court upholds conviction and sentence.

Jared Savage is an award-winning journalist who covers crime and justice issues, with a particular interest in organised crime. He joined the Herald in 2006, and is the author of Gangland and Gangster’s Paradise.