Christian Bong Collado pleads to drug trafficking

Listening devices hidden in the headquarters of a money-laundering syndicate has led to the demise of a cocaine trafficker, who boasted “how good business was” and that they “were making lots of money”.

Christian Bong Collado leaving the Supreme Court in Brisbane. Picture: Liam Kidston

A drug trafficker who boasted how much money he was making as the pandemic drove up the price of cocaine continued to receive Covid-19 payments from taxpayers.

Christian Bong Collado today pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and money laundering among other offences.

Brisbane’s Supreme Court heard Collado trafficked cocaine between August 2021 and March 2022 while he was aged 35 and 36.

Crown prosecutor Sarah Dennis said Collado first saw it as a way to make money “after socialising and seeing others operate in that way largely in the Fortitude Valley area”.

He started off selling in smaller gram amounts before graduating to selling ounces, she said.

After two and a half months Collado became a target of a police operation which was investigating the activities of a money-laundering syndicate at Spring Hill.

Collado and a co-accused were supplying the syndicate with cocaine as well as their drug profits which were laundered and paid back to them as wages.

Christian Bong Collado outside Supreme Court, Brisbane. Picture: Liam Kidston

Ms Dennis said listening devices at the syndicate business recorded Collado and his co-accused talking about how border closures and Covid-19 restrictions were increasing the price of cocaine and “comments on how good business was and that they were making lots of money”.

The court heard Collado had an unsourced income of about $181,000 during the trafficking period in addition to just under $20,000 he received over four months in “wages” from the money laundering syndicate. During the period he was also receiving a Newstart allowance and Covid-19 payments, Ms Dennis said.

When police raided the home occupied by Collado and his co-accused they found 88 clip seal bags containing 131 grams of cocaine with a purity of just 13 per cent, prompting Justice Elizabeth Wilson to note it was a “very low” percentage.

Collado was found with about $8,850 in cash.

Over the offending period Collado trafficked 1.28 to 1.7 kilos of cocaine based on his estimated earnings, the court heard.

“The trafficking can be characterised as organised and profitable,” Ms Dennis said.

“(He) was engaged in street level and wholesale trafficking.”

Collado also pleaded guilty to three counts of supplying MDMA, two counts each of aggravated possession and possession of drugs and one count each of possess property suspected of having been used in connection with the commission of a drug offence, possession of property suspected of being the proceeds of an offence under drugs misuse act and buy or possess s4 or s8 medicines or hazardous poisons.

Christian Bong Collado (centre) leaving the Supreme Court, Brisbane. Picture: Liam Kidston

Barrister Greg McGuire said his client had co-operated with authorities, and “stayed out of trouble” and reported to police three times a week on bail since this arrest.

“Often times it can be a not easy task to classify criminality in drug trafficking offending … this is one of those cases,” he said.

A number of character references were tendered on behalf of Collado who had no previous drug convictions and a largely irrelevant criminal history. He said an appropriate head sentence would be six to seven years.

The sentence was adjourned to Tuesday.

Originally published as Christian Bong Collado pleads to drug trafficking