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Two members of a Perth-based crime syndicate who set up a hospitality equipment business as a front for a drug trafficking operation were sentenced to prison in the past week.
The syndicate leader, now aged 53, and his accomplice, now 50, will each spend at least 10 and nine years, respectively, in prison after the Perth District Court sentenced them on Thursday, 5 September, 2024, over the 2018 importation of 21kg of methamphetamine hidden in a commercial oven from Canada.
The AFP investigation into the Perth group led to joint inquiries with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), which resulted in the seizure of an additional 278kg of illicit drugs destined for Australia between 2019 and 2021.
The two Perth men sentenced on Thursday were found guilty in May 2024 after a 12-week jury trial. A third syndicate member, a Girrawheen man now aged 52, pleaded guilty in 2020 for his role in the failed conspiracy to smuggle the 21kg of methamphetamine. He was sentenced in June 2021 to more than nine years' imprisonment.
The AFP charged the WA trio in January 2019 after starting an investigation in 2018 into a drug trafficking network run by the 53-year-old.
In 2018, police were monitoring the man, from Koondoola, when he told an associate he was going to Vietnam to meet the "big boss", who police believe was a coordinator for a drug syndicate that had ties to Canada.
The 53-year-old travelled to Vietnam at least four times between September and December 2018 and in late 2018, he and his two Perth accomplices set up their used hospitality equipment business as a front.
The 50-year-old man owned the Maddington property that would be the business's base and leased the site to the Girrawheen man, who set up the business name and bank accounts.
The trio gave the business a similar name to an established operator, in what police believe was an attempt to give it legitimacy.
The men spoke in Vietnamese using codes and cryptic Vietnamese slang, and also used dedicated encrypted communications devices to try to disguise their illicit operations. The 53-year-old, a heavy gambler, also met with associates at casinos in multiple states.
Despite the men's attempts to avoid police, AFP investigators became aware of the planned methamphetamine importation, enabling Australian Border Force (ABF) officers to intercept an air cargo consignment that arrived in Sydney on 30 December 2018, addressed to the syndicate's Maddington property.
When ABF officers searched the commercial oven in the consignment, they found 21 packages of high-quality methamphetamine, totalling 21kg, hidden in its walls.
This amount of methamphetamine could have been sold as at least 210,000 street deals (of 0.1g) worth about $19 million.
On 15 January 2019, the AFP, with the assistance of the Western Australia Police Force and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, executed search warrants at the business, each of the men's homes and another property used by the 53-year-old.
The business property had no running water or electricity, and no other hospitality equipment.
Police seized encrypted phones, electronic scales, a money counting machine, vacuum seal bags, a surveillance device detector and a total of $27,000 cash from the men's homes.
The cash included $5000 found in a secret hidden compartment in the centre console of the vehicle the 53-year-old had been driving.
The three men were each charged with one count of jointly committed an offence with other persons, (each of the trio charged) by entering into an agreement to import a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug, contrary to sub-sections 11.2A(1) and 307.1(1) of the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth).
The 53-year-old was also charged for refusing to provide police access to a telecommunications device seized during the warrants. He claimed he had found the encrypted device on a park bench and did not know how to access it. He was charged with failing to comply with an order under section 3LA(2) of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth), contrary to section 3LA(5) of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth).
AFP Assistant Commissioner David McLean said the outcomes from this investigation highlighted the impact law enforcement could have on serious organised crime through cross-border collaboration.
"This investigation identified a drug trafficking network involving Australia, Canada and Vietnam. These criminal groups have a negative financial and social impact on every community in which they operate," he said.
"The collaboration between the AFP and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to establish the source of the 21kg of methamphetamine led to authorities in both countries seizing additional consignments of drugs from Canada that were destined for Australian streets.
"These seizures were 37kg of methamphetamine hidden in ovens intercepted in Adelaide in April 2019; in October 2020, the RCMP seized 140kg of methamphetamine hidden in commercial kitchen equipment bound for Australia and in October 2021, the Canadian Border Services Agency found about 76kg of methamphetamine and 25kg of phenethylamine, an analogue of amphetamine, in a commercial dough mixer destined for NSW.
"In Australia, methamphetamine is the second most consumed illicit drug and it causes immense harm to users and the community around them, which is shown through associated crime, vehicle crashes and the pressure on the health system.
"Across Australia, there were 10,100 methamphetamine-related hospitalisations in 2021-2022 – which equates to more than 27 every day on average.
"This is why law enforcement agencies around the world are working together to make it as difficult as possible for transnational organised crime groups to profit at the expense of our communities."
The CBSA said it is committed to dismantling and disrupting criminal organizations in Canada and abroad by sharing information with its police partners.
The Koondoola man, 53, was sentenced to 17 years' imprisonment with a non-parole period of 10 years. The 50-year-old man, from Shelley, was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment with a non-parole period of nine years.
The man, 52, was sentenced on 8 June 2021 to nine years and three months' imprisonment. He was ordered to serve a non-parole period of six years and 10 months.