Possible connections between drug bust in Australia and Mark Batchelor’s death probed

A recent $140 million (Australian currency) cocaine bust in Australia may be linked to the hit on former footballer Mark Batchelor, a source has revealed to the Sunday Times. 

ABC News reports that two men were arrested after a business in Bungendore, Australia, was raided on July 15, and about 384 kilograms of cocaine with an estimated street value of over R1.4 billion was seized.

The raid took place a day before Batchelor was gunned down by two armed suspects on motorbikes at his home in Olivedale, Johannesburg. 

The cocaine was found in the arm of a secondhand excavator imported to Port Kembla from South Africa. The concealed drugs stunned the Australian Border Force, who estimated that the cocaine would have resulted in over a million street deals. 

Drugs destined for Australia were found in the arm of an excavator. Image: Unllad/Australian Border Force

The two men arrested in the bust have since been remanded into custody. 

Detectives are now probing possible links between the bust and Batchelor’s assassination, as well as reasons behind Batchelor’s cellphone being swiped moments after his death. 

Police are also investigating a possible link between Batchelor’s alleged revenge shooting and a one-ton consignment of cocaine from an Eastern European drug-smuggling syndicate. 

A private investigator, who was an acquaintance of Batchelor’s, was arrested after his death, but was later released due to the matter not having been placed on the court roll. 

Police are now attempting to recover Batchelor’s phone data after it was traced. The data was erased from the phone, but a forensic expert told TimesSelect that if the missing data was deleted, some contents could still be recovered, and could possibly be traced to another device, if information was transferred. 

Additional reporting by Gopolang Moloko

(Compiled by Nica Schreuder)

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