The two men, now aged 19, faced Queensland Supreme Court on Wednesday for sentencing after pleading guilty to attempting to possess a commercial quantity of imported drugs,
The teens were aged 17 when they joined with six others for what they called a "shore party" intended to bring bags full of cocaine bricks ashore on Queensland's Fraser Coast on November 30, 2024.
The teens had been promised "life changing money" of up to $300,000 each for the job, crown prosecutor Jacob Robson said
Police already had the group under surveillance, leading to a seizure of thousands of bricks of cocaine and the arrest of 13 people.
The 1.954 tonnes of cocaine had come from an large "mothership" in international waters before being transferred to medium-sized boat named True Grit, Mr Robson said.
"It's nearly two metric tonnes with a purity of about 80 per cent, that's as pure as it gets and likely from a South American source," he said.
"It still represents the largest seizure of cocaine in Australia."
The cocaine had an estimated street value of $780 million when sold in one-gram amounts.
The teens had been recruited by a criminal syndicate 24 days before the bust in a group chat called "street crew" where they went by the usernames Obi Wan-Kenobi and Chopper.
"They were involved in an organised crime group, each defendant at the time was knowingly involved in the Comancheros motorcycle group," Mr Robson said.
One of the teens said the job offer was "risky as f***" but he was still excited by the prospect, Mr Robson said.
The other teen talked of getting "$100k and change our lives".
The teens were moved to a new group chat called "fishing trip" and given coded updates on the progress of True Grit after completing a training day with tinnies.
Armed with night vision devices, balaclavas and medical gloves, the teens had agreed to take two small tinny boats to run unspecified contraband from True Grit to a boat ramp at Burnett Heads, north of Bundaberg.
The plan came unstuck when True Grit was left stranded by engine trouble off K'gari, formerly Fraser Island and was raided by police. The teens were arrested onshore.
The teens' defence barristers argued their clients should be spared time in an adult prison because of their age, guilty pleas and efforts at rehabilitation.
The import organisers never told the teens exactly what they would be collecting or how much of it there was, Justice Paul Smith heard.
One of the teens was not an Australian citizen and could face deportation after sentencing.
The teens had their bail continued.
Justice Smith will hand down his decision on Friday and the 11 other co-accused have yet to be sentenced.
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