Darren Mohr sentenced: Bondi cafe king gets 32 years’ jail for fishing boat coke plot
Sydney’s eastern suburbs identity Darren Mohr sought a “faster and more glamorous road to riches” by smuggling cocaine into the country from Chile, but now he’s been sentenced to 32 years in jail.
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A former Bondi cafe king will spend at least 18 years behind bars for trying to smuggle half a tonne of cocaine from Chile to Australia using fishing boats.
Eastern suburbs businessman Darren ‘Stripes’ Mohr organised a vessel to sail from Sydney Fish Market into international waters to collect $150 million worth of drugs from a South American “mother ship” in October 2016.
On Friday the bespectacled Queenslander cried before he was sentenced to a maximum 32 years in prison, with a non-parole period of 18 years.
Justice Helen Wilson said the insecure, coke-addicted narcissist flew around the world arranging the highly sophisticated operation, seeking a “faster and more glamorous road to riches” in his “desire for power, prestige and authority.”
In March a jury found the muscular, tattooed 46-year-old guilty of conspiring to import a commercial quantity of drugs over the foiled plot.
Mohr, who formerly owned a cafe run by lifesavers from the hit television show Bondi Rescue, stood to make $5 million from the importation.
He held sway over his fellow conspirators in Australia but was the “trusted lieutenant” of the ring’s Thailand-based mastermind known as ‘Gutterball’, the court heard.
“The offender had a very significant and very important role as the representative of Gutterball in Australia,” Justice Wilson said.
“The offender was second only to Gutterball.”
Mohr was not on the trawler which returned from waters south of Fiji empty-handed after waiting days for the mother ship to turn up.
An Ulladulla fisherman had been steering The Dalrymple, and gave evidence that Mohr flew to Santiago in August 2016 to organise logistics with the Chilean suppliers.
Mohr told the fisherman he spent days in the jungle with the drug operators, who were so well connected with allegedly corrupt local authorities the vessel would have a naval escort when it left port, the court heard.
The former security guard and mechanic also travelled to Thailand to further the drug plot, Justice Wilson said.
Mohr’s social media posts boasted a lavish lifestyle with expensive cars and holidays with a model girlfriend.
But he’d struggled with cocaine addiction since the age of 18, and suffered from depression, the court heard.
Mohr told a psychiatrist that he grew up with privileged peers and often aspired for things he could not afford.
“Despite being materially well provided for by his family, he felt he should have had more,” Justice Wilson said.
The insecure man tried to overcome his fragile sense of identity and masculinity by snorting coke and taking performance enhancing drugs, which he hoped would impress women and boost his confidence, she said.
After focusing solely on his desire for luxury and wealth, Mohr now deeply regrets the shame he’s caused his family, the court heard.
But the judge questioned whether the ex-car salesman’s contrition was truly heartfelt, given that during the trial Mohr frequently lied “with considerable creativity” and his evidence to the jury was considered an “extensive fiction.”
Mohr, who in 2017 was granted bail because he needed treatment for a “painful” urinary problem, now won’t be eligible for parole until January 2037.