Grant Henderson: mechanic pleads not guilty over 400g cocaine bust
Motorsport mechanic Grant Henderson denies trafficking a 400g ‘brick’ of cocaine from Sydney to Canberra. He told a court he had no idea drugs were inside his Ford Ranger and that the trip was made to deliver three turbochargers to a man named ‘Bill’.
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Canberra police tailed a “well known” local motorsports identity across the border before arresting him with more than 400g of high purity cocaine and more than $12,000 of cash, a court has heard.
Grant Mathew Henderson, 39, the co-owner of Extreme Street Performance in Queanbeyan, was the target of elaborate police surveillance as he drove from Canberra to Sydney and back in a day in October 2018, on what police allege was a drug run.
He was arrested in the driveway of his home in Hensman St, Latham, where a search of his Ford Ranger revealed a “brick” of cocaine with a street value of around $288,000.
There was also $12,450 in cash in a shoebox on the back seat of the ute, Constable Wade Barnes told the ACT Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Henderson has pleaded not guilty to trafficking cocaine and driving disqualified.
He told the court the trip to Sydney was to sell three turbochargers to a man named “Bill”, whose surname he has forgotten and whose contact details he does not have.
He said he arranged to meet “Bill” late at night at “Panama Parade”, and would know who he was meeting because “Bill” drove a red Ford Falcon.
Henderson denies knowing the cocaine was in his car, and says he cannot explain how it got there.
He said a $5 note found in the car with traces of the drug on it — and his DNA — got there from “snorting cocaine, who knows”, but that it was different cocaine to the large haul found in the car.
Henderson had previously said his reason for going to Sydney was to meet a man named “Gerry” whose surname he also could not remember.
He also previously said he delivered the parts in person because couriers are not available on the weekends.
Under cross examination, Henderson denied changing an earlier version of his story — that he had driven to Sydney for a car race, the World Time Attack Challenge — because a police investigation revealed the event was over by the time he arrived in Sydney.
Henderson, who runs the books for his business, said he hadn’t written a receipt up for “Bill” because police had confiscated the money and because he uses a system called “simple accounting”.
The judge-alone trial continues before Justice Michael Elkaim.