Man caught smuggling 25kg of cannabis to Darwin on plane
A Melbourne man caught trying to smuggle two suitcases full of cannabis into Darwin on a Qantas flight to pay off his own drug debt has been sentenced.
Crime and Court
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A Melbourne man caught trying to smuggle two suitcases full of cannabis into Darwin on a Qantas flight to pay off his own drug debt has been sentenced to three years in prison.
Wilton Lam, 28, pleaded guilty at Darwin Supreme Court on Tuesday to supplying a commercial quantity of cannabis after being busted by police at the Darwin airport in September.
The court heard a sniffer dog alerted police to the two locked suitcases belonging to Lam that arrived in Darwin on a Qantas flight from Adelaide, which were opened to reveal over 25kg of cannabis underneath a bath towel.
The cannabis reportedly has a Darwin street value of $275,000 and a value of around $2.5 million in indigenous communities.
Crown Prosecutor Tami Grealy said Lam refused to do a recorded interview with police or name any of the people involved in the operation.
“It’s his right, but he doesn’t receive the leniency someone who put their hand up and assisted police might,” Ms Grealy said.
Lam’s barrister Jon Tippett QC said Lam had recently been sacked and struggling with a cocaine addiction which left him in $20,000 of debt, so took up the offer to smuggle the cannabis to Darwin to pay off half of his debt.
The court heard Lam’s family, who came to Australia as Vietnamese refugees and were present in court, were “shattered by their son’s behaviour.”
“Wilton tried to deal with this all by himself, he couldn’t face the embarrassment of going people close to him,” Mr Tippett said.
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During sentencing, Justice Anthony Graham said he hoped Lam’s sentence would deter others from trying to bring drugs into the Northern Territory.
“Drugs are a curse on the community, and are particularly a curse on indigenous communities,” he said.
Lam will be eligible for parole after two years and one month.
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