Alleged drug kingpin bragged about having ‘corrupt police informants’, court

An alleged drug kingpin told a prominent NT businessman he could ‘get away with’ smuggling millions worth of cannabis into because he had ‘corrupt police informants’, a court has heard.

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AN ALLEGED Darwin drug kingpin bragged that he could “get away with” smuggling $20 million worth of cannabis into the NT because he had “corrupt police informants”, a court has heard.

The claim was revealed as part of a set of agreed facts in the sentencing of ATV dealer Scott MacFarlane for his role in the drug ring, which began after he racked up a $60,000 cocaine debt to alleged crime syndicate mastermind Peter Wellman James.

MacFarlane, 45, was jailed for three years after pleading guilty in the Supreme Court to five counts of supplying a commercial quantity of cannabis.

In sentencing, Justice Peter Barr said James had been a customer of McFarlane’s dealership before he started supplying him with cocaine to which he ultimately became addicted after using it to self medicate for an old back injury.

“(You say) Mr James was a larger than life character and you ended up spending a lot of time working on his boat,” he said.

“While on the boat, he offered you cocaine in the same way as another friend might have offered you a beer. He always had a stash of cocaine concealed in one of the cupboards on the boat.”

A large quantity of cannabis smuggled into the NT by a syndicate allegedly headed up by Peter Wellman James and subsequently seized by police. Photograph: Che Chorley

Justice Barr said James used MacFarlane’s drug debt as leverage to order him to pick up and drop off large shipments of cannabis sent up from Adelaide by another member of the syndicate, Bruce Jordan.

When MacFarlane pushed back against James’ requests, the alleged kingpin told him “You can’t get done for it” and “that he had a police officer informant who had told him the coast was clear”.

“(He said) ‘How do you think I get away with this? I’ve got blokes on the inside’, meaning inside the police force,” Justice Barr said.

“He added, ‘I can destroy your business. I can destroy everything’.

In suspending MacFarlane’s sentence after one year, Justice Barr acknowledged he was “very vulnerable” to the pressure applied by James due to his back injury and subsequent addiction.

He said MacFarlane had placed himself “at risk” by providing “extremely valuable” information to police and would “probably require protective measures and may spend periods of time in protective custody”.

“The risk could take the form of threats or intimidation in relation to the evidence that you might give against members of the syndicate who plead ‘not guilty’,” he said.

“The risk might be of violent acts of retribution against you for the fact that you have co-operated with police.”

Jordan was earlier sentenced to nine years’ jail while James is yet to enter a plea.

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Originally published as Alleged drug kingpin bragged about having ‘corrupt police informants’, court