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Three NSW men have been jailed over a failed attempt to import cocaine into Australia using their positions as “trusted insiders” at Sydney Airport in 2023.
A 57-year-old former airline logistics manager from Mascot was sentenced to three years for his role in the plot, with the other two men – a Coogee man, 63, and Sydney man, 25, both employees at Sydney Airport – sentenced to 10 years and to two years and nine months, respectively.
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The men, at least two of whom appear to have worked for Qantas subsidiary Jets Transport Express, attempted to bring 100 kilograms of cocaine with an estimated street value of $40 million into the country on a cargo flight from Johannesburg.
The men were caught by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) with five bags, each containing 20 kilograms of cocaine, in a car near the airport in October 2023, with their two alleged accomplices – a Padstow man in his forties and a Hillsdale man in his sixties – arrested soon after.
“The Mascot and Coogee men were identified as trusted insiders using their employment at Sydney Airport to facilitate the importation of drugs from the inbound flight. The Sydney man’s role was to collect the cocaine from the airport precinct for onward distribution in Australia,” the AFP said in a press release.
“The three men were found guilty of importing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug, namely cocaine, contrary to section 307.1 of the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth) and possessing a commercial quantity of cocaine, contrary to section 307.5 of the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth).
“Two further members of the alleged criminal syndicate remain before the courts.”
Codenamed “Operation Lucian”, the AFP investigation had been in progress since reports of suspicious activity at the airport in October 2022.
According to AFP Detective Superintendent Peter Fogarty, the AFP and its partners are “determined to stop organised crime groups seeking to import illicit substances through our airports”.
“Transnational serious organised crime groups routinely seek to exploit vulnerabilities at Australia’s gateways to the world, and the AFP, alongside our partners, are committed to exposing these syndicates and bringing them before the courts,” he said.
“To anyone lured in by the false promise of shallow riches from drug importations – these offences carry the potential of life in jail. You are up against a well-resourced, capable and unrelenting opposition in the AFP and our partners.
“Operation Lucian spared Australians from the violence, addiction and further criminality this shipment of cocaine would have brought to our shores.”
Qantas has been contacted for comment.
