One charge of attempt to possess a commercial quantity of an unlawfully imported border controlled drug, contrary to sub-s.11.1(1) of the Criminal Code (Cth), the maximum penalty for that offence is life imprisonment or a fine of 7500 penalty units or both and;
Two charges of attempt to possess a marketable quantity of a unlawfully imported border controlled drug, contrary to sub.s.11.1(1) of the Criminal Code (Cth), the maximum penalty for that offence is 25 years imprisonment or 5000 penalty units or both.
Committal proceedings were conducted and the matter was listed for trial in this court on 24 October 2016. Following negotiations between the prosecution and your legal representatives in relation to the charges you faced, you pleaded guilty to the charges now before me.
I accept that your plea has spared the community what would have been a lengthy and complex criminal trial and it reveals a degree of remorse on your behalf. I have taken your plea into account in your favour in mitigation of sentence.
You have admitted a criminal history involving a number of convictions and court appearances in Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania. The majority of the matters are for traffic offences. However, you also have a number of convictions for offences of violence and you have breached court orders imposed to support your rehabilitation.
A summary of prosecution opening was read to the court and tendered in evidence and your offending may be summarised as follows -
In early 2015, the Australian Federal Police commenced an investigation into your offending, which related to the importation of methylamphetamine, heroin and cocaine into Australia from Asia and Africa.
The investigation revealed that you were a member of an international criminal syndicate and were responsible for taking possession of a large number of consignments of drugs that were arriving in Australia. You provided addresses to other syndicate members of the delivery of the drugs and it was your role to take delivery of them.
Charge 1 on the Indictment concerns 33 consignments of methylamphetamine with pure quantities ranging between 160 g and 10,815 g. Each of these consignments were intercepted by the Australian Border Force and totalled 55,957.8 g; that is almost 56 kg of methylamphetamine. The wholesale value of these drugs is estimated to be $6,000,000 and the street value, between $30,000,000 and $60,000,000. As I have said, you arranged the delivery addresses for these consignments and made arrangements to take delivery of them from the addresses yourself.
Charge 2 concerns four intercepted consignments of heroin sent from India, and the total pure quantity was 725.3 g. The street value of these drugs is estimated to be $217,500.
Charge 3 concerns an intercepted consignment of cocaine and the total pure quantity was 28.9 g. The street value of these drugs is estimated to be $8,600.
During the course of telephone conversations, in English, intercepted by investigators, you described yourself as a distributor and you discussed substantial sale prices for imported drugs. It is in this context that the offending before the court took place.
On 19 June 2015, you were arrested by investigating police. You were in possession of three laptop computers, four mobile telephones, fake identification and $18,300 in cash. You denied your offending when interviewed and there is no evidence before me that you cooperated in any way with the investigators. You have been remanded in custody since your arrest.
It is plain from this summary, that your offending is of the utmost gravity. Whilst it is not possible to precisely identify your role in the criminal syndicate that you were a member of, that role was, in my opinion, in a senior and trusted managerial capacity.
Your offending occurred over a period of months and involved a range of drugs. The quantity of the methylamphetamine intercepted is extremely high and I have no doubt you were motivated to offend by the enormous profits to be made from your crimes. The estimated wholesale value and street value of the methylamphetamine in this case is evidence of those potential profits.
Illegal drugs of dependence cause incalculable damage to the fabric of our society and its citizens. People like you know this very well and you have no regard for the social damage that is a consequence of your crimes.
It has been repeatedly stated by the courts that a conviction for offending of this nature must attract a substantial term of imprisonment and the sentence that I will impose upon you will be calculated to deter others from offending in this way. It will also be calculated to deter you from reoffending. Furthermore, you must be punished for these grave crimes.
I will turn to your background shortly but in my opinion, your moral culpability for your offending is high. You are an intelligent man who came to Australia from Sierra Leone as a refugee. Your cynical criminal conduct has brought great shame to your family and all law-abiding refugees in this country. Your crimes were not motivated by poverty, deprivation or ill-health, but were motivated by profit and greed. Furthermore, whilst your plea of guilty is some evidence of your remorse, in my opinion, that is limited in your case.
You were born in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone on 15 March 1984 and are now aged 33. You are the oldest of nine children. Your parents both worked as primary school teachers. They separated when you were seven years old. In 1992, a civil war erupted in Sierra Leone and you were forced to live in a displaced person's camp for eight years.
In 2000, your father fled to Ghana and you joined him there. You and your father came to Australia as refugees in 2005 and first settled in Tasmania before moving to Melbourne in 2008. You have studied English and have worked in a range of labouring jobs and in a supervisory capacity installing insulation.
You are married and have three children aged ten, seven and two. The sentence that I will impose will deprive your children of the care and support of their father for a number of years. Although the evidence before me discloses that they will have the support of your extended family and the West African community.
I have received, in evidence, a number of character references that speak highly of you. I accept that you have a caring and supportive family and this may aid in your rehabilitation.
I also accept that your childhood and developmental years were severely disrupted by the civil war in Sierra Leone and this in turn would have impaired your capacity for reasoned decision making. No doubt you and your family experienced great hardship during this time. However, it is not submitted on your behalf that you suffer from any mental illness or drug addiction and, as I have observed, you chose to commit these serious crimes for reasons of profit and greed.
In my opinion, your prospects of rehabilitation, whilst reasonable, must be approached with caution.
However, I will fix a non-parole period in your case that will provide you with a foreseeable time in which you will become eligible for release on parole.
I have been referred to a number of relevant sentencing decisions and, in particular, the recent judgment of the Victorian Court of Appeal in DPP (Cth) v Brown[2017] VSCA 162. In arriving at an appropriate proportionate sentence in your case, I have had regard to the observations made by the court in that decision and the comparable sentences there referred to by their Honours.
In the result, the sentence of the court is as follows -
In relation to Charge 1, you are convicted and sentenced to be imprisoned for 15 years. I direct that the sentence commence on 18 February 2019.
In relation to Charge 2, you are convicted and sentenced to be imprisoned for five years. I direct that the sentence commence on 18 February 2018.
In relation to Charge 3, you are convicted and sentenced to be imprisoned for three years. I direct that the sentence commence on 18 August 2017, that is today.
This makes for a total effective term of imprisonment of 16 years and 6 months.
I order that you serve 12 years and 6 months before becoming eligible for release on parole.
I declare you have served 790 days by way of pre-sentence detention, not including today.
But for your plea of guilty, I would have sentenced you to a total effective term of imprisonment of 21 years with a non-parole period of 17 years.
I have made the forfeiture orders sought on behalf of the prosecution.
Thank you. Mr Blango can be removed from the court now, please.