Jan Visser appeals conviction over 2007 ecstasy haul in tomato tins
A drug trafficker jailed for his part in one of the world’s largest ecstasy hauls has been given an unprecedented second chance at appeal after barrister Nicola Gobbo was outed as a police informant. But his fresh evidence might not be enough to win his freedom bid.
Police & Courts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Fresh evidence coughed up by a drug trafficker in his bid for freedom over the world’s largest ecstasy haul would not have changed the outcome of his trial, a court has heard.
Jan Visser is serving 11 years behind bars after being found guilty of conspiring to import a shipment of more than 15 million ecstasy pills inside tomato tins from Italy in 2007.
But he has been given an unprecedented second chance at appeal after barrister Nicola Gobbo was outed as a police informant who had helped secure dozens of convictions, including on her own clients, over the major drugs bust.
Visser, who was never represented by Gobbo, told the Court of Appeal his conviction should be overturned as the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and the Australian Federal Police’s failure to disclose her involvement meant he did not receive a fair trial.
Visser also claimed he had fresh evidence that backed his defence at trial on how little a role he played in the criminal syndicate and that he believed the shipment was illegal tobacco, or as he called it “chop chop”.
Two affidavits, obtained after his 2014 trial, from his co-offenders Pasquale Barbaro and Saverio Zirilli both vouched that he “never knew what was in the box”, Visser said.
“Mate, I don’t know why they charged you,” Barbaro, who was sentenced to life imprisonment as the syndicate’s ringleader, also penned in a letter to Visser from jail.
But barrister Rowena Orr, QC, for the Commonwealth DPP and AFP, told the Court of Appeal on Wednesday that a jury would have still convicted Visser despite the new evidence from his co-conspirators.
She said there was key evidence before the trial of Visser’s dealings and meetings with others in the syndicate, including a trip to Italy where he met with Barbaro and Zirilli in Paris.
She said there was evidence of Visser and Zirilli then travelling to Germany where they stayed together in a Dusseldorf hotel — a trip Visser claimed was for a meeting with an olive oil investor as part of a potential new business venture.
“Those dealings and meetings showed a friendly relationship of trust and intimacy,” she told the appeals court.
“It would have been implausible for a jury to find that Mr Visser did not know what was in the shipping container.”
Ms Orr said there was “no significant possibility” by bringing Barbaro and Zirilli’s affidavits into the mix that would have changed the jury’s verdict.
She said the Commonwealth director had accepted it would have been difficult to charge Visser if not for Gobbo tipping off Victoria Police, who in turn told AFP.
Gobbo had illegally secured a ship’s bill of lading — revealing where the ecstasy would be delivered at the Melbourne port — from one of her clients, Rob Karam.
A total of 31 syndicate members, including Karam, were convicted.
Just before appeal justices Karin Emerton, Stephen McLeish and Robert Osborn reserved their decision, Visser again reiterated the basis of his appeal: “This is all about disclosure — and it was the lack of.”