Ecstasy Smuggled In Freezers
Illawarra Mercury
Monday April 28, 2003
AN Australian syndicate allegedly used a shipment of freezers to smuggle the largest quantity of pure ecstasy to be intercepted by Australian authorities, a court was told yesterday.
Five men were arrested in Sydney after 170kg of ecstasy powder was seized by police in a shipment of 36 domestic freezers which had been imported to Sydney from Port Klang in Malaysia on April 20.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) arrested the men after the shipment was uncovered, the drugs substituted with another substance and surveillance placed on the shipment.
The haul contained 85 per cent pure ecstasy that could be made into more than 440kg of tablets with an estimated street value of $92million, making it the largest seizure of pure ecstasy in Australia.
The alleged ringleader 38-year-old Dutch national Wai Kwong Cheng, who resides in Malaysia, was arrested on Thursday before boarding a plane at Sydney International Airport.
The other four - British national Andrew Philip Riddell, 44, of Glebe; Nicolas James Pollis, 28, of Bondi; Matthew Shane Walsh, 29, of Gymea; and Craig Andrew Small, 31, of Manly - were arrested in Sydney yesterday.
They were charged with aiding and abetting the importation of a prohibited import and were refused bail at the Parramatta Bail Court yesterday to reappear at Sydney's Central Local Court on April 29.
In AFP facts tendered to the court, it was alleged plans for the import began in Europe and Asia in March 2002 with Cheng later making several visits to Australia to finalise details.
Police claim Walsh and another Sydney man, Jamie Whatley, who was originally recruited by the syndicate to advise on customs clearance, travelled to Europe between April 21 and April 28 where they were under observation by various European police forces and subject to covert surveillance between Amsterdam and Antwerp.
It is also alleged Small, who was a freight forwarding agent, was later recruited to replace Whatley, who fellow syndicate members had begun to consider unreliable.
© 2003 Illawarra Mercury