Nathan Baggaley

Nathan Baggaley made his international canoeing début for Australia in 1997. He competed at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, reaching the semi-finals of the K1 500 metres event. After Sydney, he became one of the top canoeists in the world, winning the World Championship in the K1-500 in 2002 and 2003, in 2003 he also won bronze in K1-1000. At the Athina Olympics, he was upset by Canada’s Adam van Koeverden and settled for a silver medal. In 2005 he won his 3rd World Championship in the event, gaining some revenge on van Koeverden who finished third. Baggaley also won again bronze in the K1-1000 in that year. Only a few weeks later he tested positive for steroids (stanozolol and methandienone) and was banned from competition for two years.

In February 2007, he was arrested while driving on the Gold Coast, after police found 762 ecstasy tablets in his car. However, he was arrested for a more serious criminal activity in November 2007, after a police raid followed an investigation into the manufacture and trafficking of MDMA (methylenedioxymethamphetamine), the chemical used to make ecstasy. Baggaley and his brother, Dru, were among those arrested in raids on 10 homes and factories, which yielded more than 28,000 ecstasy tablets and a kilogram of MDMA powder. In May 2009, he pleaded guilty to supplying and manufacturing ecstasy, and faced a prison term of up to 20 years in jail. Baggaley was released from jail in 2011 after serving four years, however, in November 2013, only two years after his release, he was arrested again for drug manufacture, and seven charges including conspiracy to import and manufacture a prohibited drug, and to supply a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug.

After another release, in early 2015 Baggaley pleaded guilty again to charges of manufacturing methaphetamines. Finally, perhaps, in 2018 he was arrested for smuggling 650 kg of cocaine, worth over $300 million, along with his brother Dru Baggaley, a case which went to trial in March 2021, and for which they were found guilty in April 2021.