Mark De Hesselle: US Homeland Security in Forestville for 552kg of cocaine arrest
Officers from US Homeland Security, one of the world’s biggest crime fighting agencies, were on the northern beaches to arrest a suburban fruiterer. Here’s his sentence.
Manly
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A tip-off from the United States Department of Homeland Security has led to the conviction of a man from the suburban backstreets of the northern beaches for smuggling more than half a tonne of cocaine into Sydney.
Australian Federal Police were told that Forestville fruiterer Mark De Hesselle, 68, was part of a plot to bring in the illicit drug — with a street value of $248 million.
It was hidden in a refrigerated shipment of 2000 boxes of assorted pulped fruit from Brazil.
Investigators from the AFP and Australian Border Force (ABF), with intelligence from US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), began monitoring the suspect cargo from September 2020.
US HSI officers even travelled to Forestville to be present on the day De Hesselle was arrested after the international investigation effort dubbed “Operation Stalwart”.
After the tip-off ABF officers examined the fruit shipment and found bags of cocaine hidden inside 275 boxes of banana pulp. The coke weighed a total of 552kgs.
The investigators replaced the coke with an inert powdery substance and watched the consignment until De Hesselle came to pick it up from a freezer warehouse.
The Sydney District Court was told that over a two-week period De Hesselle collected 139 of the banana pulp boxes and removed the cocaine.
De Hesselle was arrested on October 16, 2020, in an early morning raid by heavily armed AFP officers, with US HSI officers present nearby, near his home in Alkoomie Ave, Forestville.
He pleaded guilty, in April last year, to importing a commercial quantity of cocaine.
During the search of the property police seized mobile phones, a laptop, a case of green stones suspected to be emeralds and five one-kilogram silver ingots as well as plastic bags of banana pulp and a box labelled as banana pulp.
De Hesselle was sentenced last month to 13 years and seven months in jail.
In a statement AFP Senior Constable Anthony Challita said no one person could import this amount of cocaine into Australia alone.
“You can guarantee that behind every large-scale importation of illicit drugs there is an organised crime syndicate pulling the strings,” Sen-Constable Challita said.
“Syndicates think they are safe importing illicit goods using legitimate business but the AFP and our partners are well aware of this tactic and in time we will catch you.”
Inspector ABF Investigations NSW, Josh Clark, said it worked closely with local and international law enforcement partners to identify criminal syndicates attempting to circumvent border controls.
“International collaboration such as this demonstrates our resolve in protecting the Australian community, regardless of the methods employed to disguise or hide illicit substances within legitimate cargo and goods,” he said.
US HSI Attaché Ernest Verina said Homeland Security Investigations and Australian law enforcement partners collaborated every day and will continue to work closely to protect global communities and bring drug smugglers to justice.
For free and confidential advice about alcohol and other drug treatment services call the National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline on 1800 250 015.
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