The Proceedings Before the District Court
- The applicant was arrested with respect to this matter on 5 December 2013. On 13 October 2015, he was committed for sentence to the District Court, entering a plea of guilty to a single count on a fresh indictment presented before that court on 14 March 2016, to the charge of conspiring to import a marketable quantity of a border controlled drug between about 31 May 2012 and about 3 December 2013. Such a charge carries a maximum sentence upon conviction of 25 years imprisonment, or a fine of $850,000, or both.
- There is no challenge by the applicant to the findings of fact made by the sentencing judge. Although there were some obvious errors in the conclusions of the sentencing judge, they were, in brief, as follows.
- In November 2012, an investigation by federal authorities established a connection between the transfer of monies using the money transfer service Western Union, and consignments arriving in Australia via express post which contained cocaine. The applicant was identified as the person who directed a group responsible for arranging the consignments. The others in the group were William Corbett, Israel Traecey, and Tamara Warrington.
- Between 17 June 2012 and 3 December 2013, over half a million Australian dollars was remitted to destinations in Colombia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Israel. In a roughly contemporaneous period, between 31 May 2012 and 3 December 2013, Australian authorities intercepted 19 consignments which contained cocaine. [1] International law enforcement intercepted a further five such consignments. Of the consignments intercepted locally, the weight of pure cocaine in any single package ranged between 7.48 grams and 161.36 grams. The total pure weight of cocaine intercepted was 1154.3 grams. [2] The street value of the drug was $780,000.
- Another 42 consignments were not intercepted. [3]
- On behalf of an unidentified person or persons, the applicant remitted money and made arrangements to collect the consignments, or directed others to do so. He tracked incoming consignments, posed as the consignee, and sometimes personally collected the consignment. He liaised with the international supplier concerning the consignments, including as to the price of the cocaine, the weight of the consignments and the cocaine, the timing and payment for them, the destination, how to more easily send and receive the consignments, concerns as to discovery by the authorities, and the profits to be made from the importations. The consignments were sometimes sent directly to the applicant or his co-conspirators, or to fictitious persons. He used a number of user names when communicating with the supplier.
- The applicant tracked 30 shipments through on-line or internet inquiry, sometimes using a false identity to secure the information.
- A range of deceptions was used to collect the consignments, including pretending to be a fictitiously named consignee.
- The cocaine was secreted within the consignments in sophisticated ways, including inside a guitar, in paper and books, in the spines of folders, in the seat of a "onesie" costume, and inside batteries. The profit for the importations was in the thousands of dollars weekly. These profits were reinvested into the conspiracy by the applicant. In his evidence to the sentencing court, the applicant said he received between $500 and $2000 per consignment, plus an amount of cocaine.
- The sentencing judge concluded that the applicant acted on behalf of others; receiving instructions from those persons, and money to pay for the cocaine, passing the cargo to them on arrival. His role in the importation was found to be "integral" and "pivotal"; he provided "a link in the chain between the overseas connection and the Australian connection", and recruited others to remit money for the consignments.
- The sentencing judge accepted the applicant's evidence given at the sentencing hearing to the effect that he had acted under non-exculpatory duress, motivated to offend by threats of violence against him and his family that were made by persons to whom the applicant owed money for drug and gambling debts. He concluded that the applicant, a person of previous "unblemished" character, was contrite, and had "excellent prospects of rehabilitation", being unlikely to offend again.
- In making those positive findings the sentencing judge had regard to the applicant's family support, and good work history, concluding that he was a talented musician with reasonable prospects in the music industry.