Drugs, Dictators, A Diabolical Plot: The Last Voyage Of The Pong Su

It was the afternoon of April 15, 2003, when residents of Lorne, a seaside town on the shoreline of the Great Ocean Road, noticed something they’d never seen before. 

It was a cargo ship. Of course, they saw big ships everyday but this was something different. The 106 metre long vessel came to within 500 metres of the rocks scattered along the coastline.

What no one knew at the time, was that the ship knew precisely where it was going. And that the following day, a search of the beach at Boggaley Creek would show up the lifeless body of a man, alongside a small dinghy. Who was he? And where had he come from? 

The Australian Federal Police already had an idea. But they could not have known how far, and how deep, this case was about to run. 

Richard Baker is a journalist and host of the podcast The Last Voyage of Pong Su. He joins this episode to take us through the case of the Pong Su, after exploring it for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. 

CREDITS

Guests: Richard Baker, host of The Last Voyage Of Pong Su

Host: Jessie Stephens

Producer and editor: Elise Cooper

RESEARCH

• The Last Voyage of the Pong Su https://www.theage.com.au/pong-su
• Forensic Investigators: Operation Sorbet https://bit.ly/2wA3zY5 
• ‘Heroin Trail Leads to North Korea’. Washington Post https://wapo.st/2xqki0c 
• ‘That pong in the bay is from a ship under a cloud’ - The Sydney Morning Herald https://bit.ly/2UhN2RN 
• ‘Korean freighter Pong Su to be scuttled’ - The Sydney Morning Herald https://bit.ly/3blPnAL 
• ‘Pong Su crew members deported’- The Age https://bit.ly/3atOeqw

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