The owner of a Laverton North liquor importation business who
tried to smuggle illegal drugs worth $14 million in a shipment of beer
bottles has been jailed for 17 years.
Adrian Franze, co-owner of the Westside Drive liquor business and
Prahran night spot Destino Latin Bar, was charged over a plot to import
14 kilograms of cocaine and 133 kilograms of methamphetamine, which had
been liquefied and hidden inside beer bottles from Mexico.
The Supreme Court heard that in October 2011 authorities checked a
shipment of 672 boxes of beer imported from Mexico and found traces of
cocaine and meth. Listening devices were then hidden in the boxes.
Commonwealth prosecutor Daniel Gurvich said Franze, 33, of
Yarraville, had been involved in a joint enterprise with two other men,
Erol Ramazanoglu and Anthony Sitar, to take possession of the drugs.
Sitar disappeared after being charged over the plot. He went on
the run after police raided Destino Latin Bar, of which he was also
co-owner. Last year, Interpol placed Sitar on its high-priority
watchlist for international fugitives.
During his trial, Franze denied knowing there were drugs in the
beer bottles until well after they had been imported. He said Sitar had
gambling debts, and that he only helped him out of loyalty to a friend.
In sentencing, Justice Stephen Kaye said he accepted that Sitar
was the organiser of the plot but said Franze played “an important, and
substantial, role”.
“The inevitable inference is that you succumbed to the lure of the
potentially enormous profits, which might be derived from dealing with
the substantial amounts of the substances that were involved in the
enterprise,” he said.
On August 16, Justice Kaye sentenced Franze to a minimum of 13
years, taking into account the fact Franze’s wife suffers from
depression, anxiety and severe panic attacks, and that Franze was a
hard-working man with a minor criminal record.
