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Australian police say a German suspect, who lived in South Africa, was arrested last month after cocaine, night vision goggles and aircraft navigation items were seized from hotel rooms in Perth. He is now part of an investigation into whether a syndicate was transporting drugs via planes.
Two men, one of whom Australian police say has links to South Africa, were intercepted and arrested in a car in Perth’s central business district.
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 navigation equipment.
These items are now evidence in an investigation unfolding in Australia into whether an organised crime syndicate used small planes to transport masses of cocaine.
The names of the two suspects arrested in December were not mentioned by Australian police, but a subsequent media report about their appearance in court named them as Oliver Andreas Herrmann from South Africa and Hamish Scott Falconer from Victoria.
On Tuesday, January 27, 2025, Daily Maverick asked AFP for clarity on the nationality of the suspected South African.
In response, it was said: “This man is a German citizen who lived in South Africa.” The AFP also updated its press release on the matter to reflect this.
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.
“An international businessman and serial investor who has close financial ties to Christy Kinahan, the crime boss, has been charged with drug trafficking by Australian police in connection with the seizure of 200kg of cocaine
Oliver Andreas Herrmann, 44, a champion marathon runner from Germany with no previously known links to organised crime, was arrested in December following an investigation, codenamed Mirkwood, into a crime syndicate.” The Sunday Times Ireland
Kinahan is reportedly part of the Kinahan cartel, which was penalized in the US in 2022 for offences related to disregard for law and order. There have also been reports of Kinahan’s ties to South Africa before.
Herrmann and Falconer reportedly met at Perth Airport on November 17, the month after investigations into them began.
From there, they travelled to Kojonup Airport, which is about 250km south of Perth. According to the AFP, the two left that airport a short time later and left Western Australia over the next few days.
Falconer then, according to the AFP, “rented a utility vehicle, which investigators observed was allegedly carrying several suitcases and petrol cans.”
On December 27, Herrmann reportedly went to the Overlander landing strip, in Western Australia, “and met a small plane”. The next day he returned to Perth where he reunited with Falconer.
“AFP investigators claim the two then bought more suitcases before disposing of suitcases and petrol cans in a shopping centre’s rubbish bin a few hours later,” the Australian police statement said.
Investigators seized the disposables. It was after those events that Herrmann and Falconer were arrested in Perth’s central business district at around 6pm on December 28.
The AFP said they seized items in Falconer’s room, including “about 200kg of cocaine, in several 1kg blocks packed in six suitcases, as well as electronic devices, night vision goggles, an airband VHF radio and a receipt for the purchase of suitcases”.
Herrmann’s room was also searched, and officers allegedly seized “four empty suitcases, aviation navigation equipment, a hardware cryptocurrency wallet, and other electronic devices.”
The AFP statement added: “Further investigations are ongoing to identify the link between the illegal drugs seized and the small plane that arrived at the Overlander landing strip.”
When Herrmann and Falconer appeared in an Australian court following their arrests, they reportedly did not apply for bail and are expected back in court in May.
It was not clear whether they were given a chance to plead or state their versions of what happened. AFP inspector Chris Colley said the arrests indicated a syndicate was active.
“Illicit drug use in Australia harbors 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 likely responsible for this attempt – from profiting from the distribution of this dangerous drug.”
In December, the same month that Herrmann and Falconer were arrested, there was another drug raid 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 hidden in shampoo.
The airline employee allegedly imported 4.1 liters of gamma-butyrolactone. Australian police had previously described gamma-butyrolactone as “an illegal substance commonly known as liquid ecstasy or ‘coma in a bottle'”.
The issue of cocaine being smuggled onto planes has come up before. Daily Maverick reported how Australian police arrested five suspected traffickers in 2023 after R500 million worth of cocaine landed there on a plane from South Africa.
Police in the country subsequently arrested five more suspects linked to the case at OR Tambo International Airport.
Daily Maverick
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