Their ocean meet-up, communicated through satellite phones, was being coordinated from a Perth hotel room by Adelaide businessman, Sean Dolman. Three of the alleged drug syndicate were on board the boat, three were on the shore awaiting the haul, two were in Perth coordinating the drop, while a ninth man was in New South Wales. The deal was months in the planning, but unbeknownst to the men, their every move since July had been watched by police. Dolman, a former whisky bar owner, on Wednesday became the second Australian man sentenced over the drug haul which was equal to 13 million street deals. At 3.47am on December 21, 10 minutes after the accused drug syndicate began transferring the meth from the boat to a hired van, armed police swarmed the Geraldton jetty.

Police were waiting for the syndicate Credit:AFP It took Dolman less than 20 minutes from the arrests to realise something had gone very wrong. One of his alleged co-offenders, based in New South Wales, had been repeatedly trying to call one of the ‘shore crew’ members from a pay phone, but it was ringing out. He then rang Dolman. “I think we’re gone,” he said, to which Dolman replied: “What do you mean, gone?”

Dolman later asks: “You talking boys with lights?” Dolman, 37, was arrested soon after the police seizure and has been in custody since. The unravelling of the drug syndicate’s plan was detailed during Dolman’s sentencing in the Supreme Court of Western Australia on Wednesday. Police were onto the syndicate in July, four days after Dolman’s co-offender, Joshua Joseph Smith, purchased a $350,000 boat called the Valkoista in Perth to complete the drug transfer. The Valkoista

Smith took the boat out to sea off Geraldton on July 7, 2017, and when he returned, 30 to 32 items were transferred into a van hired by Dolman under a false name. The van was then ‘pinged’ at various telecommunication towers travelling from Geraldton to Sydney. Detectives were alerted to the syndicate following the voyage and secretly watched on during the next two months as Dolman and some of his co-accused attended meetings in Bangkok, Crown Perth and the Gold Coast. A police search warrant of the group’s Perth Crown hotel room following their departure revealed a map of Asia, with arrows pointing to Australia, scribbled on the back of a piece of paper. A month after the Perth Crown meeting, Dolman purchased a $1.5 million luxury boat, telling the sellers he would be able to pay the vessel off in full after Christmas, following the sale of a property.