UPDATED - Police search vessel in Reef Marina
Wednesday March 11 2015, 9:15am
UPDATED 2:40pm - The owner of a tour boat raided by police this morning has denied any wrongdoing and claims officers were given a false tip.
Mark Gladwin owns the MV Boss, which was visited by police officers at 7:30am this morning while berthed in Port Douglas’ Reef Marina.
Mr Gladwin said he welcomed police aboard and allowed them to search the entire vessel without complaint, and that the officers left empty-handed and apologetic.
He also allowed police to search his block of land, even going as far to unlock containers for them, and again claimed they left without finding anything.
“They were only doing their job, they turned up nice and early to search the Boss, they found nothing and they went away empty-handed,” Mr Gladwin said.
“I took them out to my block of land, opened up my shipping containers and again of course they didn’t find anything.
“It looks like they had some information from someone that I had drugs on the boat, which is disappointing - afterwards they were almost embarrassed and agreed the whole thing had been a waste of time and police resources.”
Mr Gladwin said he had ‘a fairly good idea’ of who the police had received their tip from but didn’t wish to name the individual.
Newsport is still awaiting comment from police regarding the operation.
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UPDATED 9:50am - Reef Marina management said they had 'no knowledge' of the police operation before it took place, and that they will cooperate fully with any investigation.
Reef Marina general manager Rob Cruz said the Marina would always be supportive of law enforcement.
"As of now we haven't been asked anything specifically but Marina management is fully supportive and work with authorities in any investigation if asked," he said.
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BREAKING 9:15am - Uniformed police officers have raided a vessel in Port Douglas's Reef Marina this morning.
At about 7:45am at least two uniformed officers in operational gear and at least one plain-clothes officers attended a commercial vessel berthed in the Marina.
Police dogs were also brought to the scene.
Newsport will report more on this situation as information comes to hand.