{"id":712345,"date":"2026-06-03T10:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T10:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/712345\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T10:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T10:15:10","slug":"australian-federal-police-intercept-luxury-yacht-allege-three-people-try-to-help-queensland-fugitive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/712345\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Federal Police intercept luxury yacht, allege three people try to help Queensland fugitive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Three people have been charged in Western Australia after allegedly attempting to smuggle a suspected Queensland fugitive out of Australia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">It is the first time anyone in WA has been charged with attempted people smuggling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The suspected fugitive is a 32 year-old man who is allegedly an outlaw motorcycle gang member and was one of three people arrested when the WA Joint Organised Crime Taskforce (WA JOCTF) intercepted a yacht on Monday morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The yacht was found off the coast of Exmouth, 1,250km north of Perth and was allegedly heading for Indonesia.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Two people faced blurred standing on jetty\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5311ad01909bd3c29b7da0dba0b3f538.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">WA police have charged a Queensland woman with attempted people smuggling after her yacht was intercepted off the Exmouth coast. (Supplied: AFP)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">A 46-year-old Queensland man, Cass Williams, and 45-year-old Queensland woman, Jessica Beckett, appeared in Carnarvon Magistrates Court on Tuesday, charged with attempted people smuggling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">A 40-year-old NSW woman, Fatma Skaf, was arrested on Monday travelling between Exmouth and Karratha and was charged with the same offence. She appeared in Karratha Magistrates Court.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">WA JOCTF have been investigating the alleged scheme since last month, and investigations remain ongoing into the syndicate allegedly responsible.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A white yacht to left of screen on the ocean\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/e8c455772147b8c51e657c7a2b7f0e54.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">WA police intercepted a luxury yacht off the coast of Exmouth and subsequently arrested three people. (Supplied: AFP)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The three charged with attempted people smuggling have been remanded in custody.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The alleged outlaw gang member will be extradited back to Queensland on a return to prison warrant and a drug trafficking arrest warrant.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three people have been charged in Western Australia after allegedly attempting to smuggle a suspected Queensland fugitive out&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[29623,346220,64,63,29622,346219,124165,44,346222,204582,346221,45,7977,296288],"class_list":["post-712345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-afp","tag-alleged-fugitive","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-federal-police","tag-carnarvon-magistrates-court","tag-exmouth","tag-news","tag-outlaw-motorcycle-gang","tag-people-smuggling","tag-queensland-fugitive","tag-wa-news","tag-wa-police","tag-wapol"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}