Luis Salgado: Court determines parole bid for imprisoned drug courier

A man who tried to import 1.8kg of cocaine through Sydney Airport has had a legal bid to be released on parole knocked back, with the judge in the case lashing his conduct in custody including possessing a contraband vape and mobile phone.

Luis Salgado has made a legal bid to be released on parole.

An imprisoned drug courier found with multiple contraband items behind bars including a mobile phone and a vape has lost a legal challenge to be released early into the community on parole after claiming he had been denied “natural justice”.

Luis Salgado will remain in prison after he was sentenced to a four and a half years in prison in February, 2021, for trying to import a marketable quantity of a border controlled drug into Australia from Peru.

Salgado was arrested at Sydney Airport in February, 2020, when Australian Border Force officers uncovered a cocaine haul 900 times the marketable quantity stashed inside the then 19-year-old’s suitcases.

The drugs – weighing some 1.819kg – were uncovered inside items including shaving cream bottles and white plastic containers.

Salgado, who lived at Harrington Park at the time of his arrest, applied for parole at the expiry of his non-parole period in June, this year.

Luis Salgado was sentenced for trying to import cocaine into Australia, stored in items including a shaving cream bottle. Picture: Australian Federal Police

But the application was refused by a delegate for the Attorney-General on grounds including the seriousness of Salgado’s offending, incidents of misconduct in custody and that he posed an “unacceptable risk to community safety”.

Salgado launched an appeal against the decision in the Federal Court of Australia on five grounds including that the delegate failed to afford him “natural justice”.

Federal Court of Australia Honourable Justice Michael Lee has dismissed the appeal, finding he was not satisfied the delegate’s decision was “procedurally unfair.”

Luis Salgado at his sentencing hearing in 2021.

Justice Lee also took into account Salgado’s conduct while in custody, including a string of misconduct incidents relating to contraband.

The court heard that while in prison, Salgado was found to have possessed a camera or audio recording equipment, a vape and a mobile phone.

The contraband incidents resulted in Salgado having to be transferred to a maximum security facility.

“In relation to the (vape and phone), you attempted to deny these items were yours and only admitted the truth when told there was CCTV footage of you using the phone,” Justice Lee said.

“It’s hardly irrational to think that a man who does not comply with the norms regulating his custody does not pose some increased risk of not complying with the norms that would govern any conditional liberty on parole.”

Justice Lee found that further jail time would enable Salgado to demonstrate good behaviour.

He also noted remarks by the sentencing judge in the matter which described Salgado’s offending as “facilitating and promoting the importation of a significant quantity of a border controlled substance.”

“I consider that your release from custody at this time presents an unacceptable risk to the safety of the community,” Justice Lee said.

“I consider that a further 12 months in prison will allow you the opportunity to demonstrate good behaviour and progress in your security classification, while ensuring you are considered again for parole with such time remaining on your sentence to allow you to have a sufficient period on parole to further your rehabilitation if released at that time.”

During sentencing, the judge in the case noted Mr Salgado had “acknowledged he was wrong to have committed the offence and regretted his behaviour” and “did not attempt to justify or minimise his offence in any way.”

The maximum penalty for the offence of important a marketable quantity of a border controlled drug into Australia is 25 years imprisonment