Alex Bittner and Daniel Martinez sentenced for $1 million coke plot

Two friends have learned their punishment for getting involved in a drug plot to bring more than $1 million worth of cocaine into Australia – hidden in ornaments and uncovered by the Australian Border Force.

Police making an arrest in January 2019 following an investigation into the drug bust. Picture: NSW Police

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Two friends have learned their punishment for getting involved in a drug plot to bring over $1 million worth of cocaine into Australia – hidden in ornaments and uncovered by the Australian Border Force.

Alex James Bittner, 59, and Daniel Gerardo Martinez, 54, were both handed prison sentences in the District Court on Monday.

A shipment of four crates was intercepted by ABF officers from Peru in December 2018 and found to contain almost 5kg of cocaine in the form of 163 compressed tablets which were hidden inside ornaments, the agreed facts stated.

The street value of the drugs was estimated to be worth up to $1.4 million.

Following a failed attempt to receive the drugs, the pair were arrested in January last year along with two other men Daniel Martellotta, 45, and Luis Fernando Diez, 71.

From the day the crate landed Martellotta, who had a role in organising the shipment, began calling delivery service DHL.

Police carried out a controlled delivery of the crates to Simco Catering Equipment in Blacktown where Martellotta and Martinez both worked, the court heard.

Bittner was tasked with picking up the delivery on New Year’s Eve 2018 from outside Simco.

Bittner took the crates to his home in Bossley Park and became scared when he opened one of the boxes and found broken ornaments inside and no drugs, the court heard.

Picture of a crate with drugs inside and cash seized by police leading to the arrests. Picture: NSW Police

He told the court someone had earlier given him $50,000 to collect the shipment and to store it at his house, and he was supposed to hand it on to another person along with $200,000 cash which had also been entrusted to him.

He called Martellotta and they arranged a video call with an organiser from Peru to show what had happened to the crates.

Martinez also helped pass messages between Bittner and Martellotta and referred to the drugs as “sweet bread”, the agreed facts stated.

However, Judge Richard Weinstein found Martinez’s offending was “lower by a significant amount” than his friends.

Judge Weinstein sentenced Martinez to a term of imprisonment of two years and six months and Bittner to a non-parole period of four years.

The cocaine was found in round, pressed tablets. Picture: NSW Police

Both men have been in custody since being arrested in January 2019 and their sentences were back dated.

Part of Martinez’s sentence was suspended, meaning he will be released next month from prison having already served 16 months behind bars.

Judge Weinstein agreed with the defence that Martinez was not involved for a financial reward but rather became involved “reluctantly” as not to get his friends in trouble and to protect the reputation of his company, by not informing police.

Both men had pleaded guilty and were convicted for the charge of attempt to possess commercial quantity of unlawfully imported border-controlled drug. Bittner was also convicted for possess a prohibited drug.

Over $200,000 was seized at Bittner's Bossley Park home by police, and he told the court he intended to split his $50,000 payment three ways with Martellotta and Martinez.

“I was taking a bit of coke and was drinking a lot when I lost my son (to suicide). That was 10 months before I went to jail. I went downhill,” Bittner said in court.

“I took some money from these people … and used some of that money for my gambling.”

Meanwhile, Martellotta was sentenced in February to a non-parole period of four years for the same charge, attempt to possess commercial quantity of unlawfully imported border-controlled drug.

Diez has pleaded not guilty to the same charge and is due back in court in June.