Baggaley and his younger brother were both convicted of trying to smuggle 650 kilograms of cocaine worth up to 200 million Australian dollars into the country. Dru Baggaley allegedly took the substance from a ship in international waters, and tried to dump it when he was discovered by an Australian patrol boat on its way ashore again.
Defense attorneys claimed in court that Dru Baggaley thought he was smuggling tobacco, while Nathan was allegedly unaware of the entire plan. They were not believed by the court in Brisbane, where Dru was convicted as the main man behind the operation, and Nathan as an active assistant.
45-year-old Baggaley won several World Cup gold medals in paddling and took Olympic silver in both K1 and K2 500 meters in Athens in 2004.
Baggaley was number four when Eirik Verås Larsen won Olympic gold in the K1 1000 meters in those games, while the Norwegian was number four when Baggaley took silver in the half distance. Then they considered the Norwegian protest because they thought that the Australian had a false start.
Since then, Baggaley has been guilty of more serious things. He was banned in 2005 for testing positive for the steroid stanozolol. The brothers were sentenced in 2009 to prison for the production and smuggling of ecstasy, and in 2015 they were convicted again for an attempt to produce methamphetamine and other narcotic drugs.
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