‘Tomato tins’ drug trafficker Jan Visser’s Lawyer X appeal fails
A drug trafficker tried to overturn his conviction for importing ecstasy pills in tomato tins over links to snitching lawyer Nicola Gobbo.
A drug trafficker who helped smuggle in one of the world’s biggest ecstasy hauls in tomato tins failed to overturn his conviction because of links to Lawyer X.
Jan Visser was jailed for 11 years over the 2007 bust where police uncovered 15 million ecstasy pills hidden in tins of tomatoes sent from Italy.
At the time the 1.4 tonne haul of drugs was the biggest in the world and was valued at more than $120 million.
Visser tried to overturn his conviction over the drug bust and argued federal police and commonwealth prosecutors should have disclosed that Nicola Gobbo gave detectives shipping documents about the haul.
Ms Gobbo was acting for the ringleader of the smuggling operation Rob Karam when she handed over the damning paperwork to authorities.
Visser claimed their failure to tell him about the disgraced barrister’s involvement led to a miscarriage of justice and an unfair trial.
There were also “fresh and compelling” evidence from two co-conspirators that showed he never knew what was in the container and his prosecution was “malicious”, Visser argued.
But Court of Appeal judges Stephen McLeish, Justice Karin Emerton and Justice Robert Osborn rejected his bid for freedom on Friday.
They found there was no factual basis to label the prosecution “malicious”, and despite Ms Gobbo’s conduct, a permanent stay in his trial would not have been granted.
Federal police and prosecutors not disclosing the source of the documents was not deliberate, the three judges found.
Visser claimed at his trial he knew the shipment was illegal but thought it was illegal tobacco or “chop chop”.
He was jailed for more than a decade over the plot along with more than 30 others linked to the crime.