A Point Cook man has been jailed over 161.5kg of methamphetamines concealed in the tyres of a truck imported from China.
Rhys Cini, 30, faced the Supreme Court on August 29 after earlier pleading guilty to attempting to possess an unlawfully imported border-controlled drug.
He was sentenced to 10 years’ jail with a non-parole period of six years.
The court heard that Cini and his father, Patrick, were arrested by police on October 9 last year after police found 205 one-kilogram packages containing methamphetamines in the tyres of a tractor truck on a ship docked at the Port of Brisbane.
Police said the packages contained ice with a potential street value of between
$100 million and $200 million.
The truck had been imported by a company owned by Patrick Cini.
The ship had come from China and was bound for Melbourne.
Police removed the packages, replaced them with an “inert substance” and let the ship continue to Melbourne.
The court heard that the Cinis went to the Port of Melbourne on October 3, collected the truck and drove it to a factory in Brooklyn.
They began removing the packages from the truck tyres the next day.
Over the next few days, the packages were taken to storage facilities in Hoppers Crossing, Rhys Cini’s house and Patrick Cini’s house, while others were left at the factory. Police found three of the packages in the ceiling of one of the houses.
Delivering his sentence, Justice Michael Croucher said it was important to remind others in the community they would receive “stern and just punishment” for such offences.
“Anyone who has observed the criminal law in recent years knows the consumption of methamphetamines tends to be related to human misery in many forms,” he said.
“To take one example, in this court, we see the misery on the faces of those whose loved ones have been injured or killed by persons affected by ice, and the disbelief on the faces of families of the offenders when their loved ones are sent to prison. It is just awful.”
Justice Croucher said that while such outcomes were not to be factored into the sentences imposed, the court was ‘‘entitled to say that general deterrence, just punishment and denunciation are important considerations when sentencing for offences of this nature”.
“The community should also know that this court will denounce such behaviour. And I do.
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