The Australian People-Smuggler
Sunday
ninemsn.com.au
17 February 2002
Downloaded from http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/section/transcripts.asp

TRANSCRIPT:

PART ONE

ROSS COULTHART, REPORTER: It's quiet for now along Australia's desolate northern Kimberley coastline. But when the Indonesian monsoon subsides in the next month or so, the people-smugglers are likely to resume their illicit trade across the Timor Sea. Stopping the boats has become a major political imperative for our Police and Defence forces. They thought they had a secret weapon…a paid informant at the heart of the people-smuggling syndicates.

KEVIN ENNISS IN DILI: I've been working for the Australian Federal Police

REPORTER: And you've also been doing a bit of work on the side yourself?

ENNISS: And for what?

REPORTER: He's an Australian: Kevin John Enniss. And for nearly two years Australian authorities thought he was working for us.

REPORTER: Do you think you can put us onto people in Federal Police in Australia who can confirm your story?

ENNISS: Yes. I'm sure.

REPORTER: But Australia's trust in Enniss was misplaced. Because, after months of investigation, SUNDAY has proved Enniss is in fact a crook. He betrayed the Australian authorities he was paid to serve, and he stole off those asylum-seekers desperate enough to deal with him.

OUTSIDE AUSTRALIAN EMBASSY, JAKARTA, INDONESIA - REPORTER: SUNDAY now has the evidence to suggest that Kevin John Enniss has been playing a dirty double game on his Australian Federal Police handlers here in the Jakarta Embassy. There's no doubt he's been a very valuable informant for them on the people-smuggling trade. But he's also, we believe, been a major player in the people-smuggling syndicates. And worse still, Australian taxpayers may well have unwittingly funded his criminal activities.

REPORTER: Kupang, Capital of West Timor. Just 500 kilometres from the Australian mainland - a few days sailing by fishing boat. This town is one of the centres of the people-smuggling rackets. For years now, Enniss has been a major player in the criminal syndicates exploiting the steady stream of asylum seekers among the passengers on the ferries from Jakarta - offering them illegal passage to Australia.

REPORTER: Here in Kupang, the locals will tell of Enniss' active role in encouraging and organising people-smuggling into Australia. For he was no passive player as he suggests. It was Enniss whoes men touted for business here at the ferry wharf. It was Enniss who took money of asylum seekers desperate enough to attempt the voyage to Australia. And it was Enniss who used his Police informant status as a boast - luring Indonesian crewmen into people-smuggling with the assurance that they wouldn't be caught because he was the one who told the Australian Navy where to look.

SUNDAY HIDDEN CAMERA/AUDIO RECORDINGS OF ENNISS AND SOME BOAT CREWS WHO WORKED FOR HIM.

REPORTER: To prove our suspicions about Enniss, we found Indonesian locals who were prepared to help us infiltrate his syndicate. Over many months, we secretly tracked his duplicitous tactics against Australian and Indonesian authorities. Speaking in Bahasa, this is what Enniss told an Indonesian contact last year when asked if a boat-load of illegal immigrants organised by Enniss might be caught by the Australian Navy:

HIDDEN CAMERA FOOTAGE: ENNISS IN A DILI CAFÉ.

ENNISS [IN BAHASA]: I know their plan. I contact them directly and tell them. We cooperate. The Australian Navy contacts me and asks where they should patrol. I tell them where to patrol and catch them.

REPORTER: As you'll see, here in the Kimberley's in Northern Australia, the evidence suggests that boatloads of illegal immigrants organised by Enniss did get through undetected. SUNDAY has recorded several hidden camera conversations with crewmen who have worked on Enniss' illegal voyages. This Captain describes the orders that were passed on by an Enniss henchman.

HIDDEN CAMERA FOOTAGE: CAPTAIN JOSS AND CREW IN KUPANG.

CAPTAIN JOSS: Supardi's order was that if you were caught in Australia never ever mention the name of the agent who'd organised sending people there. That's never to be mentioned. He promised if you can keep your mouth shut you'd get a bonus when you got back.

REPORTER: The crew members rarely saw the mastermind of the operation - Kevin John Enniss. A man they knew as 'Mr John'.

INDONESIAN GO-BETWEEN: During the three trips to Australia with the immigrants, how many times did you meet Mr John Kevin?

CAPTAIN JOSS: Only once. At night on the second trip, while embarking at Estina.

INDONESIAN GO-BETWEEN: What did Mr John say?

CAPTAIN JOSS: Mr John said if you're successful I'll give you a bonus when you get back.

REPORTER: While living in Indonesia, Enniss has cultivated the image of the reputable Australian businessman. SUNDAY has learned that in November last year he was a member of a top-level Northern Territory Government trade delegation to Jakarta, promoting the mining industry. Yet Kevin John Enniss is no stranger to controversy. In 1999 he was criminally charged here in the Kupang Court with fraud and embezzlement offences. Those charges stemmed from a complaint laid by these two Australian businessmen based in Jakarta: Gerry McDermott and Peter Herbert. They'd hired Enniss in Kupang to help set up a fishing company. At first, Enniss impressed them as a man with powerful and useful connections in Indonesia.

GERRY MCDERMOTT: Supposedly when he first told us when we met him in Darwin "Oh don't worry about corruption in this country, I've got everyone in my pocket". Now he had a complete infiltration into the Police Department, into the court system and his ability as a freelancing consultant who has manipulated people in so many different ways.

REPORTER: Early on, Enniss, seen here on the left, and McDermott became close as they organised the boats and equipment they would need for the fishing venture. During this time in 1998 McDermott says Enniss admitted having smuggled illegal immigrants.

GERRY MCDERMOTT: I was very close with Kevin at the time. He turned around and went on to explain what he was all about. He was telling me directly about his past experience with another Australian fellow. And on a couple of occasions they'd successfully had you know smuggled people to Ashmore Reef and made a lot of money at it.

REPORTER: Peter Herbert also says that, on another occasion, Enniss tried to recruit him into the people-smuggling racket.

PETER HERBERT: He said 'Look, I've got all these contacts. It's very easy to do. There's no risk to it. Especially with all the people that I know and am involved with. We organise funds coming from the people who want to go, purchase a vessel - job done'.

REPORTER: Herbert, who admits having been in trouble with the law in the past, declined Enniss' offer. And - perhaps foolishly, as things turned out - both men went into business with Enniss as their man in Kupang. Very soon things went sour.

MCDERMOTT: We purchased a fishing vessel with unit holders or investors money. That was all to be completely turned into a messy situation where investors were completely robbed.

REPORTER: And you're saying it was Kevin Enniss that did the robbing?

MCDERMOTT: Absolutely.

REPORTER: McDermott and Herbert alleged to the Indonesian court that Enniss' fraud and theft had destroyed their company's efforts to create a real business and employment for locals in Kupang. McDermott claims a $35,000 haul of fish went rotten because Enniss took the generators, that were powering the freezers, off the boat. In mid-1999 Enniss was imprisoned here at the Kupang gaol for six months, supposedly while he waited for his trial. But nearly three years later the charges have gone nowhere - and no-one here can explain why the case has not had a hearing. Court officials claimed to SUNDAY that no-one could find Enniss. McDermott and Herbert both believe Enniss' powerful connections helped the charges go away. Peter Herbert recalls that around the time Enniss got out of jail in December 1999, Enniss openly claimed he was on the Federal Police payroll as an informant on people-smuggling.

REPORTER: Did he ever tell you if the Federal Police were providing him with money to facilitate the intelligence gathering that he was doing?

HERBERT: Yes and in fact I don't hold grudges against people for too long and I associated with him in Kupang while I was there, even after he got out of jail. I lent him a small amount of money because the Federal Police hadn't, he hadn't yet received his income from that source.

REPORTER: So he was talking about money he received from the federal police?

PETER HERBERT: Yes.

REPORTER: Tell us exactly what he said.

HERBERT: Well something to the effect that he was still waiting for his monthly cheque to arrive or whatever.

REPORTER: But the clear understanding that you obtained directly from Kevin John Enniss is that the Federal Police were paying him money?

HERBERT: Absolutely.

REPORTER: There's no doubt in your mind about that.

HERBERT: None whatsoever.

REPORTER: What was that money for?

HERBERT: Well that was for supplying information about vessels of which he knows a lot of vessels in Indonesia. He also knows a lot of the people involved in illegal immigrant smuggling, names, phone numbers, aliases, which phone numbers they use with which alias etc. etc.

REPORTER: So brazen did Enniss become that he told an Australian newspaper late last year that he was an informant for Australian authorities. SUNDAY has now confirmed with senior Federal Police sources that Kevin John Enniss was a paid registered informant until last year. The Director of International Operations for the Federal Police, Dick Moses, was not prepared to comment on Enniss' status but he was very clear on what any informant is not allowed to do.

REPORTER: Has the Federal Police ever authorised any informant to involve themselves in people smuggling?

DICK MOSES, DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS, AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE:P: That's categorically no. The Australian Federal Police has not done so.

REPORTER: Has the Australian Federal Police ever authorised any informant to take money off asylum seekers intending to get illegal passage to Australia?

MOSES: My answer to that is categorically no. The Australian Federal Police has never done so.

IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT IN TIMOR PROVINCE - SURYA PRANATA ENTERS BUILDING.

REPORTER: Surya Pranata, seen here on the right, is the deputy chief of the Indonesian Immigration Department for Timor Province. He says he personally warned an Australian Embassy official visiting Kupang about 18 months ago that Indonesian Immigration suspected Enniss was involved in people-smuggling.

SURYA PRANATA [IN BAHASA]: I informed my colleague in the Immigration Section at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, Mr [******] . I told Mr [******]: 'there is one of your citizens who is behaving strangely. In my opinion he's taking part in smuggling.' But they just took down his name. Colleague [******] just noted it. But no, basically there wasn't any further reaction. The last I knew he was being used by the Australian Police.

DICK MOSES - FEDERAL POLICE: I would say if it came to our notice that any informant was involved in criminal activity and was playing the other side of the fence, we would certainly sever our relationships and examine the situation.

REPORTER: Has there, I appreciate you can't talk about Kevin John Enniss specifically, you can't disclose informants. Has there ever been an instance to your knowledge where the Indonesian authorities have warned Australia about a person whom they know to be an informant for Australia being involved in people smuggling?

MOSES: To my knowledge categorically not. That's to my knowledge.

IMMIGRATION OFFICES - PRANATA GOES THROUGH ENNISS' FILES.

REPORTER: Surya Pranata has thick files on Enniss. In the months after he says he warned Australia, Pranata's intelligence officers made regular reports about Enniss meeting known criminals. Increasingly concerned, Pranata made inquiries of his own with asylum-seekers who'd done business with the Australian.

PRANATA [IN BAHASA]: The reason I suspected him was because the illegal immigrants I spoke to often mentioned his name. They said he demands money.

REPORTER: What would be your response if we could show you that one of your informants was organising people smuggling into Australia and taking money for that purpose?

DICK MOSES - FEDERAL POLICE: If you were able to show the Australian federal police that sort of evidence, we would willingly take that on board, we would examine it and investigate it.

REPORTER: So let me be clear about this. When Kevin John Enniss, or let's say any federal police informant says to us that he's been involving himself in people smuggling with the authority of the federal police, that's a lie?

MOSES: In relation to any informant, if any informant says that, that is categorically not correct, it's a lie.

REPORTER: In his years in Kupang, Enniss had cultivated many powerful friends in Government, including officers here in the Polda, the regional Police. The Police Chief, Brigadier General Jackie Uly, told us Enniss was also providing the Polda with information.

BRIG-GEN JACKIE ULY, POLDA COMMANDER KUPANG: He always came to our office here, special intelligence office, to give, they extract information from Mr Enniss, information and our own information and we got a lot of illegal immigrant. We swapped information between Enniss and our office.

REPORTER: Have you ever had information presented to you from the illegal immigrants that John Enniss is involved in people-smuggling?

ULY: No, never got the information regarding that.

REPORTER: But SUNDAY has learned that hard evidence of Enniss' complicity in people-smuggling was in fact provided to officers in the Polda Police intelligence section in Kupang early last year. Fed up with their warnings about Enniss being ignored, Indonesian Immigration obtained this formal statement from six Afghans who'd paid money to Enniss in February last year. The Afghans testified that Enniss had taken about 2000 Australian dollars from them to introduce them to a 'Ka-chuck-chi' - their word for a people-smuggler.

GRAPHIC OF STATEMENT reads: 'To chief of Immigration Officer and to Chief of Police….Mr Kevin John Enniss has taken our 10 million rupees for this wrison that help us to bring Quchagchi Sultan. But he didn't bring him, yet now we want our money.'

REPORTER: Is it possible that Mr Enniss has been playing a double-game with you and the Australians?

JACKIE ULY - INDONESIAN POLDA POLICE: In my opinion. In my personal opinion, it can be happening if Mr Enniss playing with double, double cover, something like that.

REPORTER: Kupang is a dangerous town for any law enforcement officer who cracks down on people-smugglers. The deputy Immigration chief Surya Pranata took us to his private home to show us where a bomb went off in the middle of the night in September 2000.

PRANATA SHOWS COULTHART THE BOMB DAMAGE OUTSIDE HIS HOUSE.

REPORTER: You heard a big bomb, a big bang?

PRANATA: Yeah a big bang. I'm very survived….

REPORTER: The day before, Pranata had publicly declared his intention in the media to go to nearby Sabu island to stop a people-smuggling boat leaving for Australia. Hours later, the bomb went off only metres from his wife and children sleeping inside.

REPORTER: Do you think the intention was to scare you, to frighten you?

PRANATA: Yeah, I think the syndicates maybe the bomb for me and my family. They don't want me to care about catch for the people smugglers.

REPORTER: This is Enniss' house in Kupang. In July last year, the Polres - the city Police in Kupang - wrote this confidential intelligence report detailing how Enniss had taken 29 middle eastern illegal immigrants from the ferry terminal to his home. The Polres police officer was in no doubt that Enniss was intent on smuggling them to Australia.

GRAPHIC OF POLRES POLICE DOCUMENT ON ENNISS reads: 'Kevin John Enniss is the Australian citizen who is the mastermind of the illegal immigrant smuggling from the middle east to Australia…'

REPORTER: Immigration officer Pranata raided the house with his men, and interviewed the 29 foreigners. Enniss tried to claim the whole thing was a Polda - regional Police - operation.

PRANATA: I check one by one. I open all, immigrants still asleep in the house of Enniss. Full of people. I ask 'who are you - are you registered?' He is angry with me. Say 'this is police, this is police activity. Police operation.' I don't care. I must check one by one. And then I ask 'how much you pay?' 'Yes I pay. My wallet in Kevin, they take.' Why this police operation, they take wallet. They take money?

REPORTER: It does not make any sense does it that, if it was a Police operation?

PRANATA: Ya.

REPORTER: Why would he take money?

PRANATA Yaaa

REPORTER: Polda Police officers did arrive four hours later, claiming it was a Police operation. But Immigration wasn't buying it. They finally had their excuse to get rid of him. This order for Enniss' deportation out of Indonesia was signed a few weeks later in August last year. That should have been the end of the matter. But it wasn't. An officer from Australia's Federal Police in Jakarta rang, demanding to know why Enniss was being deported.

PRANATA: One of the officers in the Australian Embassy phoned me. He asked me 'Mr Surya, is Kevin John Enniss to be deported?' 'Yes' I said. 'Why is he being deported?' 'Because he's broken the rules. We also know he is suspected to be a member of an illegal syndicate.'

REPORTER: By this stage, in September last year, SUNDAY was secretly watching on as Enniss met his Polda Police friends before leaving the country for East Timor. We knew we could prove he'd taken money off desperate asylum seekers with the promise of illegal passage to Australia. But, unlikely as it seemed, we couldn't rule out the possibility that he truly was acting with the authority of Australia's Federal Police - in Australia's best interests. In Part Two of our investigation we'll detail the evidence which shows that this man was conning Australia's top crime fighting force - how Australian taxpayers actually funded a people-smuggler.

PART TWO

REPORTER: September last year. We've followed Kevin John on the eight hour drive across the border from West Timor to East Timor. He's just been deported by Indonesian authorities and is now setting up his base in Dili. Is he the honourable spy for Australia that he claims to be - or the double-dealing crook that we suspect he is? We put Enniss to the test.

BA-EI - AN INDONESIAN GO-BETWEEN FOR SUNDAY, ON THE PHONE TO ENNISS [IN BAHASA]: Hello Boss...

ENNISS: Yeah, how're things

BA-EI: How're you?

ENNISS: Good, Good.

REPORTER: Over several years, Kupang local Ba-ei has been a spotter for Enniss. People-smuggling is a competitive business - Enniss promised Ba-ei $200 a time for every person he sends to the Australian's syndicate. But now Ba-ei's helping us - because, like many people in Kupang, he's still waiting for Enniss to pay him much of his money.

BA-EI: Ah, I've seen the five people. I've seen the five men boss.

ENNISS: Are they there now?

BA-EI: Yes, I've seen them already. They say $3,000, no problem.

REPORTER: Enniss has taken the bait. They agree to meet at a Dili night spot to discuss how much to charge five middle-eastern men. Enniss has been told they want illegal passage from Kupang to Australia.

HIDDEN FOOTAGE: MEETING ENNISS IN DILI RESTAURANT [IN BAHASA].

ENNISS: If you can get 3,000, 5,000 each, take it. Anything more is up to you. Give my man 2,000. Get the money when the people come in the boat.

REPORTER: A Dili breakfast bar, two days later. Our concern at this stage of our investigation is that Enniss might be running some elaborate sting that is truly part of his informant status. He's certainly nervous this conversation not be overheard.

HIDDEN FOOTAGE: MEETING ENNISS IN ANOTHER DILI BAR [IN BAHASA].

BA-EI: Make sure the boat is good…a big boat or small?

ENNISS: [Holds up his hand to quieten Ba-ei and grimaces in alarm]

BA-EI: I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

REPORTER: And rather than keep his Federal Police informant status secret, Enniss boasts it gives him a competitive advantage because he knows the location of the three Australian Navy boats off the Indonesian coast.

BA-EI: Boss, before you said to me. Same. It's difficult. Three boats stand by there. Navy boats. So maybe they still…stand by?

ENNISS: But it doesn't matter. I know all their ships.

BA-EI: Oh you have the place - good!

ENNISS: I know their plan. I contact them directly and tell them. We cooperate. The Australian Navy contacts me and asks where should they patrol. I tell them where to patrol and catch them.

BA-EI: Ah, that's the way it is! Good! It means we'll get through all the way this time. It's like that? Good! It means you can organise everything good and safe because you know all the positions, where the safe places are.

REPORTER: Enniss then admits what we've long suspected - that customers who won't pay Enniss' syndicate to get them to Australia are the very ones that he shops to his Australian Federal Police pay-masters.

ENNISS: Ba-ei, don't waste your time. If they don't believe, it's up to them. Don't discuss it. Just say 'if you don't believe go and find another one'. Then you contact me and I'll have them arrested.

REPORTER: It was time for SUNDAY to pay Mr Enniss a visit.

ROSS COULTHART WALKS INTO ENNISS' OFFICE IN DILI.

REPORTER: John Enniss? I'm Ross Coulthart from Australian television, Channel Nine. We'd like to do an interview with you to talk about your role in people smuggling.

ENNISS: Well you'd better turn the camera off. You'd better turn the camera off just now.

REPORTER: Do you deny that you're a people smuggler?

ENNISS: Am I a people smuggler?

REPORTER: Do you deny that you're known to the West Timorese Police as a people smuggler?

ENNISS: Yes I definitely deny that I am.

REPORTER: Can I put this to you - do you deny that you have ever had a role in people smuggling?

ENNISS: No I don't deny that I've ever had a role in people smuggling but I deny that I'm a people smuggler.

REPORTER: That's what Enniss says when he knows the cameras are rolling but the story changes when he believes we've stopped filming.

ENNISS: I've been working for the Australian Federal Police

REPORTER: And you've also been doing a bit of work on the side yourself?

ENNISS: And for what?

REPORTER: Been doing a bit of work for yourself - profiting from people smuggling?

ENNISS: Oh God, not at all.

REPORTER: And do you think you can put us on to people in the Federal Police in Australia who can confirm your story?

ENNISS: Yes, I am sure. Not in Australia, in Jakarta. To the Federal Police in the Australian Embassy.

REPORTER: And do they know you're actively involved in people smuggling operations?

ENNISS: Yes, yes, yes, they know.

REPORTER TO DICK MOSES: Has the Australian Federal Police ever allowed an informant to represent themselves as a Federal Police Officer and seek money from asylum seekers?

DICK MOSES, DIRECTOR - INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS - AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE: That's categorically no.

ROSS COULTHART INTERVIEW WITH ENNISS IN HIS DILI OFFICE, CONTINUED.

REPORTER: We have current evidence of you organising and people who are prepared to testify of you accepting money from refugees or intending refugees. So this is something that you have to think about, as to whether you've told your Federal Police handlers?

ENNISS: Oh everything. They know totally everything.

REPORTER: So do they know?

ENNISS: Totally everything

REPORTER: So they've turned you basically…

ENNISS: What?

REPORTER: They've turned you.

ENNISS: Huh

REPORTER: You were a people smuggler and they've turned you?

ENNISS: Look stop talking shit with me. I was never ever a **** people smuggler okay.

REPORTER: Well I just think we need to test your story.

ENNISS: Okay you can ***** need to test. We can put this straight to the Australian Federal Police that know ****** everything. Okay

REPORTER: Right.

ENNISS: Don't come with a ****** smartass smirk with me man.

REPORTER: I'm not…

ENNISS: I'm the **** ***** that get in the *******, that get into the bloody, down in the shit and ******* try to fix our country, man. And you ******* deadshits come along with a smirk like that. I'm the **** that gets in the ******* place, that gets put in there.

REPORTER: Let's, let's test your story John.

REPORTER: We knew there were boat-crews here in Kupang who had worked for Enniss. We hired two Indonesian locals to work for SUNDAY as go-betweens - telling them to pose as people-smugglers wanting information on how to get into Australia undetected. In front of our hidden camera, in great detail, this boat Captain - Mr Anwar - drew on this map the route that he'd taken to Australian on the instructions of Enniss - whom he calls 'Mr John'.

HIDDEN FOOTAGE CAPTAIN ANWAR LOOKING AT NAUTICAL MAP.

CAPTAIN ANWAR: Mr John gave me one like this.

ENGINEER HERI: This is the one that was given by Mr John.

CAPTAIN ANWAR: This is Kupang. This is Kupang. We were taught by Mr John 'when you depart and arrive here you set the compass at 142 degrees'.

REPORTER: Perhaps the most disturbing admission these men make is that in July or August of 1997 they dropped 26 illegal immigrants on the Australian mainland undetected. They say Enniss had assured them they would not be caught because he claimed even back then to be working for the Federal Police.

CAPTAIN: He guaranteed our safety and said 'you won't get caught'. I mulled it over, firstly because of the money and secondly because he really assured us that he worked with the Australian Police.

INDONESIAN GO-BETWEEN: Is that what he said about a guarantee?

CAPTAIN: He said that you don't have to worry. What is important is that you just follow this route and you'll arrive there safely. In case we were caught by the other side he then gave me a phone number., I forget now where I put it. But he told me if I got caught to immediately contact him and we could come back safely. Even if we were caught we'd still escape. He guaranteed it 100 percent.

REPORTER: They claim Enniss took 5,000 US dollars a person - If they were carrying 26 people, that's about a quarter of a million Australian dollars for that one voyage. Their second trip for Enniss, they claim, was in the year 2000 - with 48 passengers, an extraordinary number of people to have slipped into Australia undetected. But someone knew they were coming. This time, a vehicle was waiting to pick people up:

CAPTAIN: On the second time, I was really frightened. When I arrived there was a car and I was scared half to death. But the car was only picking people up apparently.

REPORTER: These men say Enniss admitted he had organised other illegal voyages.

CAPTAIN: He persuaded me by saying 'you are not the first one. I'm hiring you because…'

INDONESIAN GO-BETWEEN: He had repeatedly sent people?

CAPTAIN: Yes. He said he'd repeatedly sent people to Australia. Yes. He guaranteed my safety. He said ' I help a lot of crews and they become rich because of the money I give them'.

HIDDEN FOOTAGE OF DIFFERENT BOATCREW IN KUPANG.

CAPTAIN JOSS: We didn't wait around. It was a 'dump and run' operation.

REPORTER: Another Indonesian crew from a completely different boat told our go-betweens of even more illegal Enniss voyages. One in February 1997 with 17 illegal immigrants. A second in April 1997 with 25 people. A well-known Enniss hench-man called Supardi had ordered them to keep the Australian's involvement quiet if they were caught.

CAPTAIN JOSS: Supardi's order was that if you were caught in Australia never ever mention the name of the agent who'd organised sending people there. That's never to be mentioned.He promised if you can keep your mouth shut you'd get a bonus when you got back.

INDONESIAN GO-BETWEEN: Did he really say that?

CAPTAIN: Yes.

INDONESIAN GO-BETWEEN: During the three trips to Australia with the immigrants, how many times did you meet Mr John Kevin?

CAPTAIN: Only once. At night on the second trip while embarking at Airchina.

INDONESIAN GO-BETWEEN: What did Mr John say?

CAPTAIN: Mr John said 'if you're successful I'll give you a bonus when you get back'.

REPORTER: This captain had been given a different route by Enniss. He drew a spot on our map around Cape Leveque near Broome.

CAPTAIN: When we disembarked the people, we didn't hang around too long. We moved out immediately.

INDONESIAN GO-BETWEEN: Was it day or night?

CAPTAIN: Night

REPORTER: All the crews who admitted having worked for Enniss are simple fishermen, desperate for money. All of them told the same story of how Enniss had demanded they take their radios out of their boats for the voyage.

ANWAR: Mr John would not allow us to contact anybody during the whole trip. It wasn't permitted. We were not allowed to have a radio.

REPORTER: It was one way of ensuring radio silence but it was surely a recklessly dangerous demand to make on any vessel travelling the Timor Sea.

REPORTER TO DICK MOSES, DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS, AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE: Have you ever had any suspicion that any of your informants in Indonesia on people smuggling are feeding you information so that they can get their own illegal vessels through to Australia?

MOSES: No I've had no reason to believe that's the case with any informant.

REPORTER: But you can't rule it out can you?

MOSES: It is a potential, there is a potential yes as I said. We are dealing with people, these sort of people that are passing criminal intelligence who are involved or associated with criminal activity or are involved in criminal activity, that's the nature of the beast, but we have to be very alert to this situation and monitor it and put fences around it.

REPORTER: Captain Anwar gave a detailed description of the place where he claimed to have landed people.

ANWAR: You get there, there's a kind of strait. You enter. Then there is white sand.

INDONESIAN GO-BETWEEN: There is white sand, what else?

ENGINEER: Mangroves, mangroves.

CAPTAIN: Around there was some kind of oil tank and a building. About the beach, have you been to Lesiana or not? It is just like that.

REPORTER: This is Lesiana Beach in West Timor - the beach that Captain Anwar says is similar to the one in Northern Australia on which he says he was ordered by Kevin John Enniss to drop his cargo of illegal immigrants. We decided one way of corroborating the captain's claims that he successfully dropped people off in Northern Australia without being detected was to see if on the specific bearing point of 142 degrees whether there was a beach in Northern Australia, similar to this one with some kind of building with a tank beside it and a road behind as he describes.

REPORTER: The Kimberley range at the top of Western Australia is one of the most isolated places in the country. Along the coast there are only a few roads with the vehicle access described by the Indonesian crew we'd secretly taped in Kupang. We'd made sure the map we asked the Indonesians to draw their landing spot on did not show roads. But, intriguingly, the two spots the two crews described were two of just three places in the Kimberley where there is road access from the coast…Cape Leveque, near Broome. And Cape Londonderry, near the Aboriginal Mission at Kalumburu. Somewhere around here was where Captain Anwar gave such a detailed description of the beach where he'd landed people. The chairman of the Kalumburu Aboriginal Mission, Les French, was very happy to show us around his beautiful part of Australia. And he took us to one beach that sounded familiar.

REPORTER: Well, West Timor's that way. Here we are in the Kimberley's in Northern Australia. And if you were to draw a straight line on the compass bearing given by Captain Anwar in Kupang, this is almost exactly where you'd end up. It's called Honeymoon Beach. And, just as the Indonesian captain said, it is very similar to Lesiana in West Timor. Lesiana has the same shape, mangroves, and cliff-tops. And over here at Honeymoon, there is good road access. You could easily get a truck or car in here during the dry season when the road is graded. The sea was too rough to take a boat out but Les French told us that his house and especially this large water tank are easily identifiable landmarks for boats off the coast.

REPORTER: When you're out at sea, do you see a house with a tank?

LES FRENCH: Yeah, when I'm out there about probably five or six kilometres you can see the house and the tank at the background, the black tank. It's about forty foot high.

REPORTER: Les French told us that 3,000 people visit this remote beach every year. The main highway to Broome and Darwin is only six hours down the track. But it would have required a carefully planned operation to pick up a large number of illegal immigrants. Just dumping them on a beach would have attracted too much local attention.

REPORTER TO DICK MOSES: You see there is a nightmare scenario that comes out of this story for us that one of your own informants paid for by the Australian tax payer was in fact a people smuggler. Can you conceive of a worse scenario for the Australian federal police?

MOSES: If that is the case I would welcome the evidence to come forward and the Australian federal police would examine it.

REPORTER: But I mean the ramifications of it are that the Australian tax payers were funding a people smuggler.

MOSES: Look I think, let me say at this time that I have not seen such evidence and we would be, we would welcome such evidence coming forward so that we could look at it and examine it.

REPORTER: Surabaya, Indonesia. We're in millionaires row, the rich part of town. Where lawns are hand trimmed and private security keeps out the riff-raff. This is where Kevin John Enniss now lives. We're assured by Indonesian Immigration that he's been formally deported from Indonesia. They even told us they wanted to know where he is so that they could arrest him. And yet, here in Surabaya, as we watched on late last month, Mr Enniss was clearly very friendly with a visiting Indonesian Police officer. Just how Australian and Indonesian Police ever allowed themselves to be hoodwinked by Kevin John Enniss is anyone's guess. But as Australian taxpayers possibly paid for part of this house, we thought it only right to ask him one final question:

ENNISS' HOUSEKEEPER OPENS DOOR.

REPORTER: Hello I am looking for Mr Enniss. Hello looking for Mr Enniss, can you explain to him we have a question for him. Tell him that we want to know did the Australian and Indonesian Police know that he really was a people-smuggler?

ENNISS: No comments Ross, turn the camera off and we'll have a chat.

ENNISS SLAMS THE DOOR.

Important Note: The transcript of this story contains an allegation that Kevin Enniss successfully landed asylum seekers on the Australian mainland undetected. Sunday now believes that some of the information upon which this claim was based is false, and we can no longer sustain this allegation. For further developments in this story, click here.

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