Jetski fugitive
British drug dealer with crossbow flees Australia by sea … and gets 90 miles before being caught
WANTED over drugs charges in Australia, David Jackson did what any optimistic fugitive might do.
He grabbed a crossbow and a jetski, and made a dash for a remote island – but not before leaving a note for police declaring: ‘I’m not coming back.’
It was a case of famous last words for the British criminal, however, as his bungled escape ended in his capture just five miles from possible freedom.
The 57-year-old had travelled nearly 90 miles on jetski before running aground on mudflats – ending a dramatic threehour sea chase by authorities.
Jackson, who faces jail after admitting serious drugs charges, was arrested in Australian territory on Saibai Island on Monday, just a few miles short of his apparent destination on mainland Papua New Guinea.
A note left in the Subaru Outback car he abandoned on a beach in Cape York, the northernmost point of Queensland, read: ‘If I’m not back by Wednesday, I’m not dead. But I’m not coming back.’
Locals in Punsand Bay had reported seeing Jackson load his jetski with supplies, including extra fuel and a crossbow – and claimed he had tried to buy a compass and map of the Torres Strait in the days before his escape.
A witness told the local Courier Mail: ‘He was suspicious from the get-go. He’d driven his car into the water and made a dash for it on the jetski.’
Another said: ‘When he jumped on his jetski he just took off, flat out. It was a dead calm day and he was fairly whistling.’ Police and border force officials set off in pursuit after witnesses reported his suspicious behaviour. Jackson had been staying in a local campsite, authorities said, and had told a ferry operator he needed a one-way ticket to cross the Jardine River – an unusual request since there is nowhere further north on land to go. By the time authorities were alerted to Jackson’s suspicious activity, he was already speeding off on his jetski. But after he stopped to buy fuel at several island posts, a cutter carrying border force officers and federal and Queensland police caught up with him. Jackson had been on the run for a month after pleading guilty to possessing meth – or methamphetamine – for sale or supply, with an arrest warrant issued in Western Australia on February 26. Australian Border Force spokesman Jo Crooks said: ‘This arrest sends a strong message to wouldbe fugitives – our reach across Australia is second to none.’ Jackson is due to appear in court in Cairns tomorrow.