Half a billion dollar Columbia-Adelaide cocaine conspiracy trial to be heard in the Supreme Court

Two men alleged to be senior organised crime figures who are accused of conspiring to import 1.5t of cocaine with a value of at least $350m will stand trial in the state’s highest court.

Two men alleged to be senior Italian organised crime figures will stand trial in the Supreme Court on charges of conspiring to import 1.2t of cocaine worth almost half a billion dollars.

On Thursday morning, Justice Anne Bampton allowed an application by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions to hear the trial in the state’s highest court, rather than the normal location for drug trials in SA – the District Court.

During a hearing on Tuesday, Darren Renton SC, for the Commonwealth, said the level of complexity and amount of the drugs made the conspiracy one of the most serious of its kind.

“The defendants in this case are both alleged to be principals in the conspiracy and, on the director’s case, the chief financiers for the import,” he said.

The alleged mastermind of a conspiracy to import 1.5t of cocaine from Ecuador being arrested in Adelaide. Picture: Supplied

“The criminality falls into the worst category of offence.”

The court heard the conspiracy involved as much as 1.2t of cocaine which would be shipped to the east coast of Australia from Columbia via Ecuador and Papua New Guinea.

The men were arrested as part of Operation Ironside during which officers were secretly reading messages sent over the encrypted AN0M app.

AN0M messages allegedly sent and received by the two men show the involvement of other transnational organised crime figures located in Spain and Italy who had also invested in the shipment.

Michael Abbott KC, for one of the men, argued that despite the alleged size of the cocaine shipment, it was “not a conspiracy with any complexity”.

“There is no legal authority for saying that if this fits into the worst category of case then it should go straight to the Supreme Court,” he said.

David Edwardson KC, acting for the second man, said that the entire case was built on AN0M messages and the amount of cocaine, which had a minimum street value of around $480m at the time of the conspiracy, did not affect the complexity of the case.

“If you substitute the 1.5t with 1.5kg it still remains the same case,” he said.

Mr Edwardson also said the application belittled the judges of the District Court who he said were more than capable of running the trial, which is expected to last for four weeks.

In her written judgment granting the application, Justice Bampton noted that 1200kg of cocaine was 600 times the “commercial” level of drug dealing specified in Commonwealth legislation.

“I am of the opinion that the gravity of the case and the degree of complexity, difficulty, or uncertainty of the questions of law are substantial such that the (trial) should be removed into the Supreme Court,” she concluded.

Both men will be arraigned later this month.