Australian drug bust includes 8 Canadians

(Update) 

Two Fort Erie residents are among eight Canadians charged in one of the largest meth amphetamine and cocaine busts in Australian history. Thirty-year old Catherine McNaughton and 27- year old Jimi Kelsey are accused of being involved in a $240 million drug trafficking ring. Lauran Sabourin talked to Kelsey’s mother and sister Monday. Both were shocked to learn Jimi is sitting in an Australian jail on drug trafficking charges.

Jimi Kelsey’s family says he left for Australia with his cousin Catherine McNaughton only weeks ago. They were going there to set up an electronics store. Monday morning, Jimi’s mother Joyce and his sister Joy were shocked when people started calling and texting them to say Jimi had been arrested and charged with drug trafficking.

Joyce: “I know he didn’t know there was drugs involved. He wouldn’t be into that at all. He just figured he had a good job. And he was going to try it out and that was it.”

Australian police say Kelsey and McNaughton were part of a larger international drug trafficking syndicate. They were two of eight Canadians arrested in total. It’s an investigation that
began last year with the arrest of an unnamed Canadian meth trafficking ringleader. Last month, police confiscated 653 kilograms of pseudo-ephedrine hidden in vanilla powder jars  and 1.9 tonnes of drug making materials worth $300 million that were smuggled into the country.

“He told me he was going over there looking for work. He was going on vacation. They were supposed to be back in December.”

Jimi Kelsey’s family says he was desperate for work. He’d been looking for a job for two years. And because the economy in Fort Erie is so bad he thought going to Australia would be a good opportunity.”

Kelsey’s mother say it was Catherine McNaughton who brought up the idea of working in Australia: “She heard about it first. And then offered the job to my son because she said she needed someone strong to lift stuff, to set up the electronics store.”

Jimi Kelsey had been staying with his mother. He had been on welfare but she says he was cut off because he didn’t have an address.

It’s so hard getting a job here. And I feel so bad because he was hoping for the chance of travel. I should have known that good things don’t happen to people like us. You know, we’re poor. He’s poor. What can I say.”

Joy Kelsey heard from her brother 4 days ago and he didn’t say anything was wrong. She only heard about the incident from friends who were watching it on the news.