Maitland truckie arrested in $140m drug investigation on northern beaches guilty of minor possession offences

A truck driver who was arrested by detectives investigating a $140 million drugs bust has pleaded guilty to three minor possession offences and has not been charged in relation to the larger haul.

Truckie Christopher Parker outside Manly Local Court.

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A truck driver who was arrested by detectives investigating a $140 million drugs bust has pleaded guilty to three minor possession offences.

A joint agency operation called Strike Force Bresnahan was established following a tip-off about a container that arrived at Port Botany on May 7.

Inside officers found 312kg of cocaine, with a street value of $93.6 million, and 236kg of MDMA, worth $47.2 million.

A series of raids followed and police swooped on truckie Christopher Parker outside Storage King, South Creek Rd, Cromer, on May 27.

They alleged at the time that he was there to collect the shipment, bound for rural NSW.

He has not been charged in relation to the contents of the container.

Police swooped on the container which came through Port Botany in May.

Officers also said the 33-year-old from Rutherford, near Maitland, was found with an encrypted phone.

While he was not charged in relation to the drug shipment, he was charged with three counts of possession.

The facts sheet submitted to Manly Local Court state that police conducted a sobriety assessment while questioning the driver.

Officers described him as being “glassy eyed, unsteady on his feet, sweating, confused and at times argumentative and hostile”.

At the end of the assessment Mr Parker told police he had a quantity of drugs in the cab of his trailer.

Officers found two grams of meth, two grams of cannabis and .5 grams of cocaine.

The container was said to container shampoo from Spain.

In court on Monday he said he had been “burning the candle at both ends” and thought the drugs could help him.

Mr Parker, who is married with children, did daily runs from Tamworth to Sydney as part of his job, court papers stated.

He pleaded guilty to the three counts of drug possession today and was given a conditional release order for 12 months.

It is not the first time he has appeared in court in relation to drug possession. In 2006 he appeared in Maitland Local Court charged with two counts of possession.

The following year he appeared again in East Maitland District Court in relation to another possession matter.

A police spokeswoman said yesterday that investigations are continuing as part of Strike Force Bresnahan adding that “no additional charges have been laid at this time”.

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