French couple sentenced to 13 years for moving $121 million worth of cocaine from Townsville yacht
Rachid Kachour and Matthieu Rees received 13-year prison terms after pleading guilty to possessing and transporting hundreds of kilograms of cocaine seized from a yacht in Townsville.
In Brisbane Supreme Court, French citizen Rachid Kachour, 58, and his partner Matthieu Rees, 47, admitted to possessing a commercial quantity of unlawfully imported drugs after a 2023 discovery at the Townsville Yacht Club. CCTV evidence showed them spending four days drilling into a sealed cement compartment on a yacht from Vanuatu, removing roughly 484 kg of cocaine that was 80.6 % pure and valued at $121 million. They transferred the haul in a van hired by Kachour to a safe house, where it entered a larger distribution network.
The judge highlighted the puzzling lack of police supervision of the vessel despite prior suspicion. Both men, who have no prior criminal record, were each sentenced to 13 years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of five and a half years, and Kachour will face immigration detention after release.
Why it matters
The case exposes gaps in border-force oversight that allowed a massive cocaine shipment to enter the community.
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