John Roy: Man who allegedly helped coordinate Abrolhos Islands drug haul in 2019 transferred to England jail

The UK man who allegedly helped coordinate the failed $1 billion drug bust in the Abrolhos Islands in 2019 is still firmly in the sights of WA Police detectives in the wake of a recent prison transfer. John Alexander Roy — the person WA detectives have already interviewed twice over the bungled Abrolhos Islands drug seizure — was recently transferred from a prison in Jersey to another jail in England. Roy found himself locked up in Jersey — the largest of the Channel Islands situated between England and France — after he was sentenced to 12 years in jail in 2020 for serious drug offences in Jersey. Despite his jail term, WA Police intend to extradite Roy to Western Australia to face serious drug charges over the one tonne of drugs found near the Abrolhos Islands in September 2019 — a drug bust for which five other men are already serving lengthy prison sentences for. In a statement issued this week to The West, WA Police confirmed that Roy had recently been transferred to serve the remainder of his prison term in England to be closer to his family. “WA Police are monitoring his movements within the prison system. In consultation with the CDPP, we will eventually seek his extradition back to WA to face very serious drug trafficking charges,” the statement said. Detective Superintendent John Hutchison told The West it would be alleged Roy played a key role in the Abrolhos Islands drug operation. “This person was (allegedly) involved with the transportation of almost a tonne of prohibited drugs into WA,” Det. Supt Hutchison said. Incredible details about the Abrolhos Islands drug bust were revealed in a WA court as the five men who were convicted over the bungled attempted drug importation were jailed. The court heard how the drug bust was discovered after local fishermen reported a 15m yacht named Zero was stranded on a reef near Stick Island. What the fishermen didn’t know was that the Zero yacht had been sailed all the way via Madagascar, South Africa and then to WA — during which time it had been packed full of drugs, including 380kg of cocaine, 344kg of ecstasy and 171kg of meth. The yacht’s skipper, Antoine Dicenta, later admitted he fell asleep at the wheel before it ran aground, a blunder that eventually led to the downfall of the multimillion-dollar smuggling operation. Court documents related to Dicenta’s Supreme Court proceedings allege Roy was trying to coordinate a rendezvous between the Zero yacht and another boat, the DW-140, which was supposed to transport the drugs to the WA mainland. “The rendezvous was to have been coordinated through John Roy, using mobile and satellite phones. Mr Roy was in England at the time of the importation,” the court documents state. Dicenta and his crewmate on the Zero — Graham Palmer — were jailed for 26 and 22 years respectively. Three other men who were on board the DW-140 — which also ended up running aground on a reef — also copped hefty jail terms for their respective roles in the drug plot. American Jason Lassiter, British man Scott Felix Jones and New South Welshman Angus Bruce Jackson are all serving between 25 and 33 years in prison. Roy was one of seven people sentenced in a Jersey court in September 2020 following a joint investigation by police and customs officers in Jersey. That investigation, known as Operation Lion, became one of the most complex drug-related investigations ever undertaken by Jersey law enforcement agencies. The operation culminated in the seizure of MDMA, cocaine and cannabis resin with a street value of approximately £919,000 ($1.6 million) after they were imported by boat into Jersey via England in June of 2019 — just a few months before the Abrolhos Islands haul was uncovered.