Ex-NRL player blames ‘unfair’ doping ban for critter smuggling

Disgraced rugby league player Martin Kennedy blames an “unfair” doping ban for pushing him to peddle exotic beasts on the international black market.

Disgraced rugby league player Martin Kennedy blames an “unfair” doping ban for pushing him to peddle exotic beasts on the international black market.

The 29-year-old boasted to undercover cops he would never be caught as he made hundreds of thousands of dollars smuggling rare animals in the post — many of which died.

Martin Kennedy arrives at court today. Picture John Grainger

But last March the former Roosters prop pleaded guilty to importing and exporting a Noah’s ark of wildlife including Chinese softshell turtles, alligator snapping turtles, snakehead fish, stingrays, sugar gliders, and 15 veiled chameleons thought to be worth $500,000 alone.

Kennedy was due to be sentenced at Downing Centre District Court on Friday but his defence team revealed the ex Broncos player had been “coerced” into committing his crimes, sparking an adjournment.

Police seized evidence of his involvement in the trafficking reptiles overseas.

“He succumbed to the pressure,” barrister Greg James QC said.

“He owed a debt.”

Kennedy claims he was struggling financially after being the target of “unfair treatment” by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority, Crown prosecutor John Agius SC added.

Once a rising star, Kennedy was found to have tried to use performance enhancing drugs in the 2012 off-season and was suspended from the NRL.

In 2016 the NRL tribunal threw the book at Kennedy, adding an extra nine months to his mandatory two-year ban after discovering he had deliberately deleted evidence from his phone.

Kennedy now claims he “never made any attempts to obtain the drugs which were the subject of that investigation”, Mr Agius said.

Police also found large amounts of cash

“That is entirely inconsistent with material we obtained from itself,” he said.

These factors may influence the judge’s sentence, with Kennedy facing a maximum penalty 10 years in jail or a fine of $180,000.

The prosecution sought an adjournment to allow them to investigate with the help of and the NRL because “we want to challenge the credibility of this defendant”, Mr Agius said.

Kennedy, now a construction worker, told an undercover Australian Federal Police officer he had clients all over the world willing to pay top dollar for the creatures from Asia and Australia.

“They’re worth $300 (each) here, they’re worth three grand over there, so how about instead of selling all these snakes for 10 grand here, I sell them over there and buy a f***ing house,” he told the undercover cop.

“Fish are finicky as f**k, there’s more losses but they’re cheaper over there (Asia) … you lose more heads but it still works out to be higher (profit).”

The 28-year-old former Sydney Roosters and Broncos arrested at his Bondi home.

Kennedy, who is free on bail, told the undercover operative whom he thought was a potential business partner the postal system was perfect for smuggling animals as some packages always slipped through the overwhelmed system.

He was arrested in March 2017 after the AFP raided his Bondi home a, finding $43,550 in cash in the freezer and two southern Asian pythons in a container in the hallway.

A taskforce had earlier intercepted parcels containing 25 live shingleback lizards and 10 live turtles bound for Sweden. The lizards alone were estimated to be worth up to 10,000 euros on the black market.

The defence objected to photos of the dead lizards being tendered and Magistrate Garry Neilson relisted the sentence for May, stating: “I don’t think the court would be assisted by dead animals”.