Key player Bruce Jordan in $20m cannabis smuggling racket first to be jailed

A key player in one of the biggest organised cannabis smuggling rings in NT history is the first to be jailed over the racket.

• Raid uncovers 132kg of cannabis worth an estimated $2 million, $47,000 cash: NT Police

A KEY player in one of the biggest organised cannabis smuggling rings in Northern Territory history is the first to be jailed over the $20 million racket.

Bruce Jordan, 58, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to supplying a commercial quantity of the drug to alleged syndicate kingpin Peter Wellman James between September 2019 and September 2020.

The court heard Jordan had been operating a headstone business in Adelaide when he agreed to use it as front to ship large consignments of the illicit cargo up the Stuart Hwy.

As part of the “sophisticated and methodical” operation, large green steel drums were filled with 60 one pound packages of ganja and disguised to look like shipments from Jordan’s legitimate business.

When the drums arrived in Darwin, other members of the syndicate picked up the drugs and distributed them for cash, some of which was then packaged up and sent back to Jordan in Adelaide.

Drug and Organised Crime Squad Detective Superintendent Kerry Hoskins with some of the cannabis seized during Operation Medina. Photograph: Che Chorley

In sentencing, Justice Peter Barr said Jordan dispatched 10 such shipments before the syndicate was broken up by the Drug and Organised Crime Squad’s Operation Medina.

Justice Barr said Jordan had since admitted to facilitating the supply of more than 1.5 tonnes of cannabis within 12 months with a street value of more than $20 million if sold by the pound.

“In an attempt to avoid detection by law enforcement agencies, the members of Mr James’ syndicate used CIPHR phones, internet calls, texts and social media applications to maximise the security of communication among members,” he said.

“They also conducted face-to-face meetings in vehicles at prearranged locations to discuss

the distribution of the cannabis and payments of moneys owed. They also maintained separate safe houses in the Northern Territory where cannabis could be securely kept.

“This measure compartmentalised the syndicate and minimised risk to the overall syndicate in the event that a member of some aspect of the syndicate’s operations were compromised.”

Some of the more than 1.5 tonnes of cannabis seized by NT Police during Operation Medina. Photograph: Che Chorley

In handing him a nine year prison sentence, Justice Barr said Jordan had told a psychiatrist his mood was “low” and he was “drinking more heavily” when he agreed to join the syndicate.

“You said that you were bored and not thinking as well as you should have,” he said.

Justice Barr said Jordan had previously been highly regarded, with friends describing him as “hardworking, generous and trustworthy” and “compassionate, socially conscious and caring”.

“The supply of nine very substantial commercial quantity consignments of cannabis from Adelaide to Darwin and one smaller but still significant consignment sent to Alice Springs is, objectively, very serious offending,” he said.

“Your offending conduct was essential to the drug supply operations of a well-organised criminal syndicate, and the role played by you through your legitimate business, Bruce Jordan Memorials, was critical to those operations.”

Jordan will be eligible for parole in 2027.

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Originally published as Key player Bruce Jordan in $20m cannabis smuggling racket first to be jailed