A St Albans man who attempted to import nearly 20 kilograms of methamphetamine has been sentenced in the County Court to 19 years prison.
Onyeka Evans Nwagbo was convicted by a jury on March 9 of one charge of attempting to possess a commercial quantity of an unlawfully imported border-controlled drug after he tried to import the drugs from China concealed in “body slimmers and massagers” in January, 2015.
The court was told the Chinese Anti-smuggling Bureau detected the drugs – found to be 19.78 kilograms of pure methamphetamine with a wholesale value of almost $5.5 million – in December, 2014, before being shipped.
The consignment was repackaged without the illicit substances and sent to Australia, with Australian Federal Police notified.
The package was originally addressed to a property in Deer Park, but police intercepted calls from a phone number linked with the package to change the delivery address to a property in West Sunshine.
Police placed a listening device inside the package and delivered it to the new address on January 12, 2015.
Soon after, police intercepted more phone calls, believed to be from Nwagbo, that detailed plans to move the package.
The surveillance team observed the package being moved to the carpark of the Kealba Hotel and then to a property in Braybrook, where it was transferred to a Toyota HiLux registered to Nwagbo.
The package was taken to an address in Sunshine.
Police subsequently observed package wrappings at the front of that address and at the rear of the HiLux.
On January 13, police intercepted phone calls from a man believed to be Nwagbo to a number in Nigeria, detailing concerns about surveillance and cars following him.
On January 14, police attended a fire in Brookfield, at which remnants of slimming machines in which the drugs were hidden were found.
Nwagbo denied any involvement in the importation, but his version of events was at odds with police surveillance and a jury subsequently found him guilty.
The court heard that Nwagbo had fled Nigeria after his father, who was king of his village, was murdered by his uncle, who then pursued Nwago. He arrived in Australia as a refugee in 2009.
Judge Frances Hogan said a severe custodial sentence was warranted.
“There is little to mitigate your sentence,” she said.
“You were taken into this country and given asylum as a refugee and have been found guilty by a jury of conduct that had the potential to seriously damage our community.
“In all of the circumstances, the only appropriate sentence can be an immediate custodial sentence of a very substantial nature.”
