sturuomo

Sydney man jailed over $70m WA drug plot
Thursday Feb 15 14:54 AEDT
A Sydney man has been jailed for 21 years for trying to smuggle $70 million of cocaine into Western Australia, the second biggest haul ever seized in the state.

David Sukkar was a 23-year-old when he helped Bolivian national Jose Sevilla import 106kg of cocaine into the WA port of Albany in August 2004.

He pleaded guilty on the second day of his trial earlier this month to helping Sevilla, whose English was limited, by using false names to buy mobile phones, rent a cabin and the small dingy for the drug plot.

Sentencing Sukkar on Thursday, WA Supreme Court Justice Lindy Jenkins said Sevilla had collected the drugs in a dingy from Brazilian-registered grain carrier Macros Dias one dark August night, rowed them to a remote beach and hid them in bushland.

sturuomo

Police arrested the pair after watching them inspect the hidden stash.

Justice Jenkins sentenced Sukkar to 21 years in jail, with a 13-year non-parole period, for his junior but vital role in the smuggling plot.

"You rightly deserve condemnation and severe punishment," Justice Jenkins said.

Sukkar might have been only an assistant, but once Sevilla's tourist visa expired the Sydney man would have played an essential role as possibly the only person in Australia who knew where the drugs were hidden, she said.

She acknowledged Sukkar's life had been troubled after experiencing civil war in Lebanon.

But deterrence was a major factor in sentencing, she said.

"People's lives are irrevocably damaged (by drugs)... people are hurt."

During sentencing submissions last week, Sukkar's lawyer Elizabeth Fullerton said her client's role in the plot was elevated after the original buyers of the cocaine withdrew when they were tipped off by a corrupt surveillance operative.

Sukkar was retried this month after a hung jury failed to reach a verdict last year.

Sevilla is serving life in prison with a non-parole period of 21 years.

uluru

So the point is?

possum

I second that uluru...

BeeSting

I think the point has something to do with cultural imperialism and how dare we have the nerve to question the sentence handed down to SC coz look at our own courts etc etc.

admin

first and only warning - make posts pertaining to Schapelle Corby or make no posts

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