Darwin kingpin sentenced over cannabis racket that smuggled millions in cannabis into the NT

The Darwin kingpin of a ‘sophisticated and methodical’ multimillion-dollar cannabis smuggling racket will spend at least the next five years behind bars for his senior role in the syndicate.

THE Darwin kingpin of a “sophisticated and methodical” multimillion-dollar cannabis smuggling racket will spend at least the next five years behind bars for his senior role in the syndicate.

Peter Wellman James, codenamed “Hippy”, was handed a head sentence of 12 years in prison on Wednesday, after pleading guilty in the Supreme Court to commercial drug supply, conspiracy and handling tainted money.

The court heard James headed up the syndicate’s Darwin operations, smuggling more than 1.5 tonnes of cannabis into the NT from a shadowy group of Adelaide suppliers known as “the Russians” from late 2019.

In sentencing, Justice Peter Barr said if all of the cannabis had made it onto the street, it would have retailed for between $17m and $20m.

Justice Barr said James had managed to slip under the radar of police under the cover of a number of legitimate businesses until he became the subject of a targeted operation and was ultimately arrested in November last year.

In a subsequent raid of James’ Bellamack home, police found more than $100,000 in cash along with a black kevlar ballistic vest and an encrypted “cypher” phone used by the syndicate to avoid detection by authorities.

Darwin cannabis kingpin Peter Wellman James.

Justice Barr said the 43-year-old father of three had been the patron of an orphanage in Bali since 2012 and set up water projects in villages and schools in Indonesia, travelling regularly to the country.

He said James had told a doctor he started abusing drugs and alcohol to deal with feelings of “self-blame and regret” after one of the orphans drowned during a visit to a water park and another died from complications of liver disease.

“You told (the doctor) that you first became involved with the distribution of cannabis supplied by people you understood to be of Russian heritage, based in Adelaide, because you owed them money,” he said.

“The reason you owed money to those persons, indeed, why you became involved with them in the first place, remains unclear.”

Orphanage patron Peter Wellman James.

But Justice Barr said there were aspects of what James told the doctor that “do not necessarily ring true” including that he installed a security system at his home due to “delusional beliefs about intruders”.

“It seems far more probable that you installed security in your home because you were regularly keeping significant amounts of cash in your home.

“For example, on 4 November 2020, you had packages of cash totalling $207,110 in the walk-in robe in your bedroom.”

James, who sat in the dock shaking his head and repeatedly glancing back towards his lawyer during the sentencing hearing, will be eligible for parole in 2027.