Former senior Canberra public servant and head of ACT police media Sandi Logan has won one of the UK's top true crime writing awards.
The UK award for outstanding investigative reporting follows after Mr Logan received the 2023 Ned Kelly award for Australia's best true crime book.
Mr Logan, who has now retired to Mystery Bay on the NSW South Coast, first reported on the story back in the 1970s and, fascinated by it, began keeping all the documentation he could find and stored it until he could find time to complete the project.
His book Betrayed tells the true story of two close friends from the US, Vera "Toddie" Hays and Florice "Beezie" Bessir, who in 1977 embarked on what they thought would be the trip of a lifetime, driving a campervan across Europe and the subcontinent, then on to Australia.
Mr Logan's book contends the women were deceived by Vera's nephew, Vern Todd, who worked with accomplices to secretly pack two tonnes of hashish into the vehicle along the way.
But the vehicle and the two women, later nicknamed the "drug grannies", were tracked by the Australian Federal Bureau of Narcotics. They were arrested, sentenced and jailed yet always maintained their innocence. The nephew escaped retribution.
The two women were sentenced to 14 years without parole.
Mr Logan had advocated for their release for years and completed a first draft of their story in 1983. But on their release after five years behind bars, the women wanted to put it all behind them.
Mr Logan flew to the US and reconnected with the pair but it was decades later until the story was finally told, using their diaries, original photos, audio cassettes and files.
"The extensive research required of a story such as that of the drug grannies from an era when records were stored on microfiche, court transcripts were hard copy, and photographs were largely black and white prints was all that much harder when I first reported on this story as a young journalist in the late 1970s," Mr Logan said.
"Thank goodness for the internet and the technology available today - it made my job writing the book much quicker and more enjoyable. But one thing hasn't changed for me: it's not always about being the first to print or publish; it's important to be accurate and truthful when sharing one's non-fiction work with an audience."
He described his book as "a cautionary tale of how easily innocent individuals can be ensnared in criminal activities".
Negotiations are under way for a cinematic version of the story.
Australian film director Phillip Noyce, responsible for cinematic successes such as Rabbit Proof Fence, Dead Calm and Patriot Games, is firmly in the frame to direct.
