A WYNDHAM Vale man jailed over a large-scale drug operation spanning Wyndham, Melton, Brimbank and Ballarat has lost a Supreme Court appeal to have his nine-year sentence reduced.
Tyrone Formosa was sentenced in September 2011 to a non-parole period of six years and six months after pleading guilty to charges of conspiring to import a border-controlled drug in commercial quantities and to trafficking methylamphetamine and MDMA.
He was arrested in March 2008 after extensive investigations by the Australian Federal Police, Victoria Police and Australian Customs, which began in 2005. The operation probed several crime syndicates involved in importing and trafficking illegal drugs.
Most of the drugs came from Canada and were transported to Formosa in mail parcels sent through mail or by courier.
Police intercepted 60 packages, including 25 addressed to Victorian properties in Wyndham Vale, Little River, Caroline Springs, Ardeer, Ballarat and Cape Clear.
Formosa’s lawyers appealed his sentence to the Victorian Court of Appeal last month, claiming it was excessive.
They argued the sentencing judge had taken as fact a number of “questionable” points, leading him to determine the extent of Formosa’s involvement in the syndicate that were not supported by evidence. They disputed findings that Formosa had deliberately deceived the court when giving evidence, that he had been the principal of the syndicate since 2005 and an inferred finding that he was the sole point-of-contact in Melbourne for the Canada-based drug dealer. It was also argued the sentencing judge relied too heavily on the oral submission of one of Formosa’s co-offenders.
The Supreme Court refused the appeal. Judge Simon Whelan said the sentencing judge had not simply “preferenced” the co-offender’s testimony over that of Formosa, but had reached his findings beyond reasonable doubt that he had been the syndicate’s principal.
