Raymond Lipovac tells court bikies forced him to smuggle MDMA worth $79m hidden in excavator

Raymond Lipovac told a court he smuggled drugs for bikies hidden in an excavator to pay off a debt owed by his dead brother.

A western Sydney plumber claims he was forced to smuggle $79 million worth of MDMA hidden in an excavator because his dead brother owed $1 million to a bikie gang.

Raymond Lipovac told the Sydney District Court that he knew his brother had links to the unnamed outlaw motorcycle gang when he died in a 2009 motorbike crash.

He told the court that shortly after the funeral, he was approached by a senior member of the gang who said a significant debt owed by his brother to the organisation would still have to be paid.

Lipovac told the court this included completing jobs for the gang that included holding significant amounts of illegally obtained cash and eventually put him on the path to smuggling 450kg of MDMA into Australia hidden in an excavator.

An X-ray image of the excavator showing the MDMA hidden inside

Judge Andrew Scotting accepted the explanation in the Sydney District Court on December 16 when he sentenced Lipovac to a minimum four years jail over the failed smuggling attempt.

Lipovac told the court he initially refused to be involved in drug crimes for the gang but agreed to count and hold money.

After seven years, he had paid off $1 million of his brother’s debt and had a small portion left to pay, the court heard.

But in 2016, there was “a change in the OMCG’s leadership and the new leader was less lenient,” Judge Scotting told the court.

“During the offender’s first meeting with the new leader, he was reportedly ‘manhandled’,” Judge Scotting said. “The offender reported that they threatened that if he did not follow their instructions to complete a task, they would take his car and anything else they wanted.’

The task was to cut MDMA out of an excavator that was imported into Australia on March 13 2020 from the United Kingdom.

A section of the boom was cut away to reveal the MDMA hidden inside

An affidavit filed with the court by Lipovac’s lawyer Abdul Tlais said the plumber felt cornered into completing the task.

The plan to get the drugs to Australia was bold and well thought out — but ultimately unsuccessful.

The drugs were in 226 bags that were hidden inside the boom of a 42 tonne Doosan brand excavator.

Australian Border Force found the drugs in short time after X-raying the excavator when it arrived in Brisbane.

The excavator containing the drugs had been put up for sale by overseas based members of the drug syndicate on a website specialising in the sale of heavy equipment.

The Australian based syndicate members were tasked with buying it.

On April 16, 2020, the excavator “went live” on the website Ironplanet with a “buy now price” of $295,000 and a “secret reserve” price of $275,000.

Five men were arrested across Western Sydney and London.

Four days later, the Australian end purchased the excavator for $340,000 by Lipovac’s alleged offsider.

It was then delivered to a Blacktown construction site on May 7 where it was left for 12 days.

On May 18, Lipovac and the other man used the excavator to dig a trench.

The MDMA laid out.

The machine was then put in the trench to avoid them being seen when they attempted to cut into the boom and retrieve the drugs.

They were recorded by secret listening devices discussing their failure to find the MDMA, court documents said.

On May 19 and 20, the men made further unsuccessful attempts to find the drugs after seeking further instructions from their superiors in the smuggling operation.

Two UK based members of the operation were arrested on June 15, 2020, while investigations continued on the Australian end.

On December 9, 2020, Lipovac and his offsider were arrested in raids where police recovered more than $1 million in cash.