Mortlake saleyards backer Rohan Arnold pleads guilty to importing cocaine

Mortlake saleyards’ major shareholder Rohan Peter Arnold has pleaded guilty to conspiring to import 1.28 tonnes of cocaine into Australia.

Happier time: Rohan Arnold at the South Eastern Livestock Exchange, Yass, in 2016. Picture: Kym Smith

MORTLAKE saleyards’ major shareholder Rohan Peter Arnold has pleaded guilty to conspiring to import 1.28 tonnes of cocaine into Australia.

The 44-year-old Murrumbateman man was arrested in a Serbian hotel in January last year as part of a joint ­Serb-Australian police sting.

Mr Arnold pleaded guilty in the Sydney Central Court and now faces a potential life sentence on the conspiracy charge.

He was alleged, with two co-accused, to have imported the cocaine hidden in a prefabricated steel.

He was known as a steel ­importer and had related ­businesses in southern NSW.

Mr Arnold also had a prominent role in the development of the South Eastern Livestock Exchange at Yass in NSW and the Western Victoria Livestock Exchange at Mortlake.

There is no suggestion co-owners or co-directors of the saleyards were involved in the cocaine importation.

Mr Arnold was removed as a director of WVLX Operations Pty Ltd, which runs the Mortlake saleyards, on February 13 this year. The same day, he was removed as a director of SELX Operations Pty Ltd, operator of the SELX saleyards.

But Mr Arnold remains the largest shareholder of both facilities, with a 44.9 per cent stake, through SELX Holdings Pty Ltd and its holding company, Pyrtee Pty Ltd.

It is possible those assets and others held by Mr Arnold, such as the Yass Industrial Park, in which he sold his half share to saleyards manager Brendan Abbey, could be subjected to an Australian Federal Police investigation under Proceeds of Crime legislation.

An AFP spokesman said he would not speculate on whether Proceeds of Crime specifically applied to the saleyards and industrial park assets.

But he said it was well known the AFP conducted Proceeds of Crime investigations in drug importation case as a matter of course.