Nathan John Ralph acquitted of drug trafficking after police intercepted package, replaced cocaine with icing sugar

An Adelaide man who pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking has been acquitted because of a crucial error in a police sting.

An Adelaide man accused of trafficking cocaine inside a hollowed-out novel has been acquitted of the charge because police replaced the drug with icing sugar.

Delivering his reasons why Nathan John Ralph had no case to answer, Judge Timothy Heffernan said he should have been charged with attempting to traffic instead of trafficking in a controlled drug.

Mr Ralph had been standing trial in the District Court after Australian Border Force Officers detected an “anomaly” in a package, which contained a novel and was sent from the United Kingdom to a unit at Seacliff.

Upon inspection, they allegedly found the book had been hollowed out and a plastic bag containing 99 grams of cocaine had been placed into the cavity.

District Court Judge Tim Heffernan.

Police arranged for the drug to be replaced with icing sugar, and the package was then delivered to a unit that Mr Ralph owned and leased to his father.

The court heard an undercover police officer delivered the icing sugar to the unit in February 2019 and, a short time later, Mr Ralph arrived to collect the delivery.

Later that day, he was arrested at the Glen Osmond Market and charged with trafficking in a controlled drug.

He pleaded not guilty and stood trial in the District Court but, at the conclusion of the prosecution case, counsel for Mr Ralph argued the case should not proceed.

Kris Handshin QC told the court his client had been charged with trafficking but the offence could not be proven after the substance was substituted.

“All the accused had done was to store, transport or carry icing sugar, which was self-evidently not an offence,” a published judgment said.

“For a completed offence, it was necessary for the prosecution to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused had taken a step as alleged with respect to the controlled substance, not an inert substitute posing as the controlled substance.”

Judge Heffernan ruled there was no case to answer and acquitted Mr Ralph, but said the case could have proceeded had a different charge been laid.

“It seems clear enough that, had the accused been charged with an attempt to traffic … there would have been a case to answer on the facts,” he wrote in the judgement.