A Sydney father and son have both been sentenced to imprisonment in Western Australia for their involvement in a 2022 plot to import and distribute 56kg of cocaine from Switzerland.
The Perth District Court today (24 April, 2025) sentenced one man, now 28, to 11 years and six months' imprisonment, with a non-parole period of seven years, after he pleaded guilty last year (2024) to the attempted possession of a commercial quantity of an unlawfully imported border controlled drug.
His father, now 56, also pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced to six years' imprisonment, with a non-parole period of three years, for aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring the commission of his son's offence.
Operation Dommeldange, which resulted in their arrest, was launched in June, 2022, when Australian Border Force (ABF) officers at the Perth cargo facility found packages of white powder stuffed behind the rims of four new car wheels imported via air cargo.
The AFP established there was about 56kg of white powder, which contained 37.67kg of pure cocaine, and replaced the drugs with an inert substance before releasing the tyres for delivery.
With the consignment addressed to a Perth mechanic, the 28-year-old posed as a representative of that business in calls and emails to organise collection of the wheels and delivery to a Nollamara home on 7 July (2022).
Here, two other men and a woman cut open the tyres to retrieve the hidden packages.
The 28-year-old subsequently flew to Perth from Sydney that evening (7 July), while his father arrived from Sydney the following day.
The pair hired a car on 8 July (2022) then drove to the Nollamara property, where they collected the packages from the garage.
Police watched as they checked into a hotel and then spent about two hours at a shopping centre in Belmont, before dumping all the packages in a skip bin outside.
The AFP, with assistance from ABF, arrested the pair nearby and also retrieved the dumped items.
At least one of the plastic-wrapped packages had been opened before being discarded.
The same day, the two other men and the woman who cut open the tyres at the Nollamara property were also charged. They are expected to be sentenced in June (2025) after being found guilty of the attempted possession of a commercial quantity of unlawfully imported cocaine, contrary to section 307.5(1) of the Criminal Code (Cth), after a four-week jury trial in the Perth District Court in November, 2024.
The jury acquitted another man charged with the same offence.
AFP Acting Commander Peter Hatch said the AFP worked closely with ABF and other partners to keep the community safe and ensure Australia was a hostile environment for drug-trafficking syndicates.
"In 2022-23 there were 985 cocaine-related hospitalisations nationally*, more than two each day on average, which impacts the entire community," a/Commander Hatch said.
"This amount of cocaine could have been worth about $18.2 million and sold in the community as 280,000 individual street deals of 0.2 grams. The seizure and investigation have prevented harm and stopped the money from going directly into the pockets of criminals.
"We will be relentless in our pursuit of anyone who tries to profit by exploiting the demand for illicit drugs."
ABF Commander Ranjeev Maharaj said the ABF was committed to working with law enforcement partners to see criminals face the full force of the law for their actions.
"Drug importers are motivated by one thing only - greed - and there is no consideration to the harm their actions can have on the Australian community," Commander Maharaj said.
"No matter what creative methods are used to conceal them, the ABF is alert to attempts to import illegal substances and will take every action to disrupt this abhorrent trade."
*Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
