Businessman Clinton Ribbon jailed for almost eight years over pseudoephedrine haul which could have $60 million worth of methamphetamine

An Adelaide man with extensive links to the agriculture and chemical industries has been jailed over a massive precursor haul.

Businessman Clinton Ribbon at a convention in 2017 three years after he had been arrested for importing precursor chemicals. Picture: Supplied.

An Adelaide businessman with ties in the international agriculture and chemical sector has been jailed for almost eight years for importing enough precursor chemicals to make $60 million of methamphetamine.

Clinton Ribbon, 64, was found guilty at trial, sentenced to what was one of SA’s longest drug prison sentences before his conviction was overturned on appeal.

Now Ribbon is facing the prospect of being behind bars until at least February 2025 after pleading guilty to importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled precursor.

In 2013 and 2014 Ribbon was a director of Thailand based company Complete Chemical Manufacturing Company Ltd.

His cousin had started the company in the early 2000s.

The business sold large amounts of cleaning products throughout south east Asia and operated under the name Complete Chemical Solutions in Australia.

Australian Federal Police begun investigating the company over suspicions it was being used to smuggle of pseudoephedrine, a precursor chemical used to make methamphetamine.

Over the course of their investigation police recorded more than 11,000 conversations between Ribbon and co-accused Kristian Madgwick as well as others involved in the company.

The “literally thousands of hours” of conversations revealed a deliberate and prolonged effort by Ribbon to try and get their hands on large amounts of the chemical.

But the efforts did not initially go as planned.

Ribbon made reference in the intercepted phone calls to a previous deal that had never eventuated, going so far as to say “until the (stuff physically) is on the ground I don’t believe a word of it”.

Ribbon was also recorded saying “it is head scratching why we can’t get it up and going”.

While the smuggling was being planned, the business continued to ship containers full of legitimate chemicals from Thailand to Sydney.

In July 2014, Ribbon and Madgwick were in Thailand when 13.445kg of pseudoephedrine disguised as cleaning chemicals were loaded into a shipping container.

On August 17, 2014, the shipment was seized at Botany Bay and found to contain 10 five-litre bottles full of a yellowish liquid.

Within the litres of liquid was enough pseudoephedrine to make 15kg of methamphetamine with a street value of between $15 million and $60 million depending on purity.

The liquid was removed and replaced with Dilmah tea to ensure it retained the same colouring.

Ribbon was arrested in Adelaide. His first trial ended in a mistrial but his second ended in a guilty verdict.

Ribbon was sentenced to 17 years in prison, one of the longest drug related sentences ever handed down in South Australia, but had the verdict overturned on appeal.

Madgwick was initially jailed in NSW for five years and 10 months with a non-parole period of two years and 11 months.

The sentence was reduced because of Madgwick’s co-operation with police but was later increased when he stopped assisting in the investigation.

District Court Judge Geraldine Davison said during sentencing earlier this month that Ribbon’s offending mirrored his business acumen in legitimate companies.

“Your engagement in relation to this offence was no more than that, another business in which you were engaging,” she said.

“However, this one was illegal and had the capacity to cause untold misery in Australia or perhaps anywhere in relation to the drug that was to be ultimately manufactured from this precursor.”

Judge Davison sentenced Ribbon to seven years and nine months in prison with a non-parole period of four years and six months.