Narcotics Smuggling via Livestock Carriers off the Coast of Western Australia

Livestock carriers are emerging as an attractive – but often overlooked – vector for maritime narcotics smuggling. Recent international investigations show criminal networks increasingly probing these vessels for their structural complexity, operational constraints, and reduced visibility compared to other commercial platforms. The combination of large multi-deck layouts, continuous animal husbandry activity, and high-density cargo creates environments where concealment is easier and detection is more resource-intensive.

For border security and maritime enforcement agencies, this trend presents a growing operational challenge. Livestock carriers require constant care regimes, include areas that are difficult to access, and generate substantial organic waste – conditions that complicate thorough inspections and can create blind spots that traffickers attempt to leverage. At the same time, any enforcement action must avoid disrupting animal welfare and vessel safety, narrowing the window for rapid intervention. As narcotics traffickers test these vulnerabilities, the risk extends beyond individual shipments: the exploitation of this supply chain strengthens transnational criminal organizations and introduces compounding safety, corruption, and biosecurity concerns across the maritime domain.

Emerging Activity in Australia: November 2025 Case

In November 2025, Australian authorities uncovered a significant narcotics smuggling attempt involving a foreign-flagged livestock carrier. The investigation began on November 6, when recreational boaters reported suspicious bundles attached to floating drums roughly 15 nautical miles off the coast of Western Australia. A joint Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Western Australia Police Force response team recovered the packages, ultimately seizing approximately 525 kilograms of cocaine. At prevailing Australian street prices, the shipment carried an estimated value of more than US$110 million.

The following day, enforcement teams conducted a detailed search of a livestock carrier berthed in Fremantle. Investigators discovered a blue drum and line consistent with the equipment used to float the narcotics offshore. They also identified an area where deck railings had been removed and reinstalled, and a shipboard CCTV camera had been deliberately covered – indicators of preparation for over-the-side offloading as the vessel approached port, according to AFP.

Windward’s Intelligence Review

Windward conducted a retrospective analysis to assess whether this vessel, and others like it, could have been flagged earlier through multi-year behavior-based risk modeling.

A review of all livestock carriers calling in Australia between November 2024 and November 2025 showed:

• 17 unique livestock carriers made 250 port calls over the 12-month period.
• Activity intensified in the final 30 days, with 11 different livestock carriers entering Australian ports in that timeframe.

Applying Windward’s proprietary smuggling risk indicators – which leverage 15 years of historical vessel behavior, operational patterns, and research – the platform identified:

• 1 High-Risk vessel, and
• 4 Moderate-Risk vessels

for potential narcotics or weapons smuggling. These automated assessments draw on vessel track history, behavioral anomalies, port-call sequences, cargo patterns, ownership structures, and additional typologies.

Together, these two vessels made 7 port calls in Australia over the past year. Their repeated access to Australian ports, combined with their elevated risk profiles and the evolving smuggling methodologies observed globally, suggests they warrant closer scrutiny.

The first vessel identified as High Risk is a 45-year-old livestock carrier operating under the flag of Kuwait. Windward’s system elevated its smuggling risk rating to High on November 4, 2025, driven by recent course deviations and unexplained loitering behavior inconsistent with its stated voyage patterns.

The vessel has a long record of scrutiny by port state control. It has undergone multiple inspections in Fremantle, each resulting in deficiencies; the most recent inspection in December 2024 recorded 17 separate deficiencies. Beyond safety and maintenance concerns, its operational profile shows a pattern of low economic utilization. The vessel spends extended periods in port, accumulates a high number of port calls, and demonstrates comparatively low sailing days relative to peer livestock carriers. This combination of inefficient operating behavior and recent anomalous activity reinforces the vessel’s elevated smuggling risk assessment.

The second vessel, a 190-meter Kuwait-flagged livestock carrier, has been classified as Moderate Risk for smuggling since November 2025. The designation is based on multiple recent identity changes, including name and registration updates, and deviations from its typical routing and operational patterns.

This vessel also has a history of port state control issues in Fremantle, with repeated deficiencies cited across several inspections. In February 2024, it was involved in a widely reported incident in Cape Town, South Africa, when authorities attributed severe odors across parts of the city to conditions aboard the vessel. Inspectors found animals kept in substandard and unhygienic conditions, further underscoring operational mismanagement.

Similar to the high-risk vessel, its economic utilization is markedly irregular. The vessel spends substantial time in port and records low sailing days and limited nautical miles compared to its operational cohort. These patterns – combined with its history of deficiencies, identity inconsistencies, and the Cape Town incident – support its Moderate Risk classification.

Relevance to the November 2025 Activity

Both vessels made port calls in Fremantle over the past year; however, only the medium-risk vessel was present in Australian waters during the November 2025 incident. It entered the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone on October 30 and transited south along the coast toward Fremantle. During this approach, the vessel passed in proximity to the area where, days later, members of the public discovered large packages of cocaine attached to flotation drums approximately 15 nautical miles offshore near Lancelin, Western Australia – the location assessed as the likely drop site.

The vessel then continued to Fremantle, completing its port call and departing on November 9. Windward’s review found that no other livestock carrier transited near the identified drop zone during or around this period. This makes the medium-risk vessel the only livestock carrier whose movements coincided with the likely offshore offloading area and the timeframe of the interdiction.

Conclusion

The November 2025 interdiction highlights how livestock carriers – once considered low-priority targets for narcotics interdiction – are becoming viable platforms for transnational criminal networks. Their structural complexity, uneven regulatory oversight, and operational constraints create concealment opportunities that traffickers are beginning to exploit. In this case, a combination of vessel behavior anomalies, historical deficiencies, and ownership-level risk indicators all pointed to elevated smuggling potential well before the cocaine was recovered offshore.

Windward’s retrospective analysis demonstrates that multi-year behavioral profiling and automated risk modeling can surface these indicators early in the vessel’s voyage, enabling authorities to prioritize assets, plan inspections, and cue surveillance. The identification of two Kuwait-flagged livestock carriers – one high-risk and one medium-risk – with repeated calls to Australia, substandard compliance histories, and irregular operational profiles further illustrates the need for systematic, technology-driven screening of vessels operating in niche maritime sectors.

As criminal organizations diversify their maritime tradecraft, enforcement agencies must be equipped with tools that integrate behavioral analytics, remote sensing, and real-time intelligence to detect anomalies at scale. Strengthening early-warning capabilities and applying them consistently across all vessel classes – including those perceived as low-value targets – will be essential to preventing similar smuggling attempts and protecting Australia’s maritime borders.

Stop Narcotics Smuggling Before It Reaches Your Shores