Sydney dad imprisoned for $1m Peruvian cocaine importation
Daniel Martellotta's bills were adding up and his mental health was crumbling when he signed on with a drug syndicate to bring a million dollars worth of cocaine into Sydney hidden in Peruvian ceramics.
NSW
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A father of two will serve at least four years in prison for importing a crate of Peruvian knick-knacks that hid a million dollar secret.
Daniel Martellotta, 45, along with three other men came onto police radar in December 2018 after they imported a crate of bubble-wrapped ceramic ornaments from Lima, Peru.
Australian Border Force agents, inspecting the shipment in Sydney, found a silver package containing 30 grams of cocaine hidden behind a mirror in the 70 centimetre crate.
They called the Australian Federal Police who referred the investigation to the NSW Police.
The agencies ultimately found about five kilograms of cocaine, much in the form of 163 pressed-pills, inside the shipment.
The Peruvian powder was 88 per cent pure meaning the total weight of prohibited drug was just over 4300 grams and carried a street value between $925,000 and $1.4 million, NSW District Court Judge Antony Townsden said on Friday.
From the day the crate landed Martellotta, who had a role in organising the shipment, began calling delivery service DHL. They told him the crate was being processed by the ABF.
But, by Christmas, the crate still hadn’t been delivered to his business address and Martellotta jetted down to Melbourne with his family for a holiday.
While he was away his increasingly wary co-accused wondered when the shipment would arrive.
It was New Year’s Eve when NSW Police were given the green light for a “controlled operation” and organised to have the crate dropped at its intended destination in Blacktown.
An SMS to Martellotta from police, purporting to be DHL, triggered a flurry of phone calls between the syndicate members about who should pick up the “sweet bread”.
With Martellotta away, the others rented a ute from Bunnings and arrived to pick up the crate but they were recorded on CCTV.
It was taken to the Bossley Park home of the syndicate’s main man, Alex Bittner, before they realised someone had “interfered” with their goods.
“I told (the others) already that you have nothing to do with this,” Bittner told Martellotta in a phone call that evening.
“(I told them) you don’t control it, you just help get it here. So don’t worry, relax.”
The syndicate initially suspected the DHL delivery driver was “dodgy” and had ripped them off.
Detectives listened in as Bittner called his Peruvian counterparts and asked for help finding the driver so he could “take care of him”.
Martellotta’s phone buzzed again with a new message on January 8.
This time an unknown number has sent him a photo of his cocaine with the message “nice perico”, translated slang for cocaine, “maybe we talk”.
Another flurry of phone calls ripped through the syndicate.
Martellotta asked Bittner if he thought “the NACA”, slang for police, were behind the ruse.
“(We’d) already be gone if that were the case,” Bittner responded.
Bittner didn’t have to wait long to be proved very wrong – three minutes later co-ordinated raids saw police, armed with search warrants, swoop on every member of the syndicate.
Inside Bittner’s home officers found more than $200,000 in Australian dollars, $11,000 in US dollars, powder, ornaments, the crates and lab equipment for processing the highly valuable drugs.
Martellotta initially told police he had no idea about the cocaine plot and suggested the others may have set him up.
But, facing a maximum life sentence for attempted commercial drug importation, ultimately pleaded guilty as soon as he could.
“I ask of this court and Your Honour for mercy and leniency when sentencing me, with this I will put in place the steps necessary to effectively support my family and community and to live as a good law abiding citizen,” he wrote in a letter of apology to the court.
Sitting in the dock in a crisp, grey suit, Martellotta wiped away tears as the judge said it appeared he had turned to importing drugs for financial gain.
He had no prior convictions and was a caring dad to his two sons, one of which was autism.
But, before he imported the cocaine, his own father had been given a terminal diagnosis and he had become “burned out” trying to pay his mortgage and mounting bills, the judge said.
His worsening depression, the court heard, likely impacted his decision making around the time he was given the “trusted position” in the syndicate.
Martellotta broke down in tears on Friday as the court heard his wife of 20 years had been driven to alcoholism as their finances began collapsing more than a decade ago.
In an affidavit she said her life has become “unmanageable” since his arrest and she expected to lose the family home without his support.
Judge Townsden ordered Martellotta to serve six years in prison with a non-parole period of four years.
He will be first eligible to walk from custody in January 2023.
Bittner, last month, pleaded guilty to intending to possess a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug, and drug possession.
A further charge of dealing with the proceeds of crime will be taken into account on sentencing, which is expected to go ahead in May.