Cocaine seized: The yacht Mayhem of Eden. He did not realise plainclothes NSW Police were observing him by chance just three metres away. He was promptly arrested and charged with possessing and using cocaine. In 2011, he pleaded guilty and was given a two-year good behaviour bond with no conviction recorded. He resigned from the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service within days. But documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws by one of the men accused of importing the cocaine have revealed Customs decided not to tell the public about the incident.

Awaiting hearing after major drug bust: Simon Golding. The heavily redacted material shows the officer was part of Operation Bergonia/Collage that seized 464 kilograms of cocaine from the Mayhem of Eden, which sailed into the Scarborough Marina in Brisbane on October 12, 2010. A Sydney man, Simon Charles Golding, and two others were charged as a result but all three are still waiting for a hearing. The first trial in the Queensland Supreme Court was aborted in December when federal police officers denied on oath the existence of some video footage at the marina, only for it to be found on their own website. This was just one of a number of incidents that raise questions about the performance of some federal police officers involved in the bust.

In its October 2010 press release, the federal police said 464 kilograms of cocaine were seized, but the prosecutor in the trial said Mr Golding and the others were charged with importing 400 kilograms. The reason for the discrepancy is not clear. A federal police officer also admitted in court they had been "unprofessional" by seizing a bag in the boot of a car in which Mr Golding was a passenger after he left the marina, but not searching an almost identical bag on the back seat. The car was then parked - unguarded - in the federal police's Brisbane car park for three days. It was only when the hire car company asked for its vehicle back that the second bag was opened and allegedly found to contain 25 kilograms of cocaine. An email, sent to Customs' Integrity and Professional Standards branch on the Tuesday after the arrest of the cocaine-snorting officer, reveals he said: "If I was a sparky or a plumber, I would have admitted to snorting it. [Name redacted] went on to say: 'I was just celebrating. I'm about to be commended for my involvement in the large bust. I'm good at what I do."

A ministerial briefing to the then minister for home affairs, dated October 25, 2010, said the officer was "part of the team involved" in the 464-kilogram seizure but was "not part of the planning" of it. He was on duty in Port Macquarie only in case the Mayhem of Eden sailed there. "The officer has had no access to the drugs seized by the AFP during this operation." The documents show that, on the night he was arrested, the customs officer was with two other men, one of whom fled. The officer "refused to disclose ... the identity of the [person] who decamped … it is unknown if the male is a serving Customs and Border Protection officer." No date for Mr Golding's new trial has been set.