Champion racehorse owner Damion Flower ‘weak’ when he imported cocaine from South Africa

A champion racehorse owner faces life behind bars for his role in a major international cocaine smuggling ring.

Disgraced Sydney racing identity Damion Flower “succumbed to a temptation” and is “weak but not beyond redemption” for being involved in an international cocaine smuggling ring, a court has heard.

Flower, 49, was arrested in April 2019 at Sydney Airport alongside baggage handler John Mafiti, 52, following a police operation over a cocaine smuggling ring.

The pair faced the NSW District Court on Friday for a sentence hearing after pleading guilty to their separate roles in the three-year operation.

Flower, a part-owner of champion stallion Snitzel, appeared in court via audio-video link from Long Bay Hospital and pleaded guilty to one count of importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug and dealing with the proceeds of crime.

Mafiti, a Qantas baggage handler who appeared from Metropolitan Remand & Reception Centre, pleaded guilty to one count of importing a border controlled drug and one count of dealing with more than $1m in the proceeds of crime, admitting to importing cocaine on 12 occasions.

Disgraced Sydney racing identity Damion Flower “succumbed to a temptation” and is “weak but not beyond redemption” for being involved in an international cocaine smuggling ring, a court as heard.

Flower was due to go to trial over the matters in March but pleaded guilty to the amended charges.

The court heard the pair were involved in the cocaine smuggling ring from June 29, 2016 to May 22, 2019, with police finding more than $100,000 in drug money at Flower’s Moorebank home.

Police in June 2016 found 24kg of cocaine in a Nike sports bag that had not been collected from a Qantas flight from Johannesburg.

The court heard the pair imported cocaine into the country in 12 consignments, each shipment containing about 19kg of the drug, amounting to a total of 228kg.

When police raided two storage lockers leased by Mafiti and his Hinchinbrook home in western Sydney, they discovered $6.1m in duffel bags and suitcases.

Flower’s barrister April Francis told the court both offenders “succumbed to a temptation” and asked Judge Sarah Huggett to regard them as “weak but not beyond redemption”.

“Mr Flower failed to have the fortitude to withdraw from the enterprise,” Ms Francis said.

“This was an isolated breach in criminality.”

Flower is a part-owner of champion stallion Snitzel. Picture: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Ms Francis said the offending “lacked any complicated commercial connection” to the criminal underworld, arguing Flower had good prospects of rehabilitation but had been the focus of “significant” media attention.

Judge Huggett said the matter was “objectively a very serious case” with some “strong subjective features”.

The court heard Mafiti acknowledged his “critical role” in the syndicate, hiring a storage shed in his own name and using his personal phone to conduct the offending.

His lawyer told the court there was a “lack of sophistication” in the offending.

However Judge Huggett said Mafiti knew what he was doing.

“He knows he was breaking the law,” she said.

Flower, 49, was arrested in April 2019 at Sydney Airport alongside baggage handler John Mafiti, 52, following a police operation over a cocaine smuggling ring. Picture: James Croucher

“He knows it’s speaking in code to Mr Flower … he was persuaded to assist those he looked up to.”

A crown prosecutor told the court Mafiti and Flower were involved in a “sophisticated” enterprise despite there being not much planning.

“The system worked because of the knowledge and the privileges of Mafiti being a Qantas baggage handler,” she said.

Court documents reveal former brothel king Eddie Hayson was seen on CCTV meeting with Flower an hour before or after two of the 2019 drug importations.

There is no suggestion Hayson was involved in the drug smuggling.

Police allege Flower funnelled some of the drug proceeds into his horseracing empire, including shares in top racehorses, the Platinum Park horse stable at Clarendon, cars, a speedboat and properties in NSW and Queensland.

The pair are set to be sentenced in February.