A Hillside cleaner has been jailed for 15 years for importing more than 23 kilograms of pure methamphetamine stored inside a car.
Besim Beqiri pleaded not guilty to attempting to possess a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug, saying he was an “innocent dupe”.
But Judge Felicity Hampel said evidence showed he was part of a sophisticated, highly organised and well-planned scheme involving drugs with a street value of almost $30 million.
“The quantity of drugs involved was significant,” she said.
A sentencing hearing in the County Court on April 8 heard that customs officers found the drugs in the rear- quarter panels of a 1967 Chevrolet Impala imported from California on September 4, 2014.
The drugs were replaced with another substance, the car was tracked and an investigation began with telephone intercepts and tracking and listening devices.
The car was eventually delivered to Beqiri’s Hillside house on September 11. He was arrested two weeks later.
Despite his denials, the court heard that Beqiri, 43, was arranging the importation of the car as early as May 2014.
Judge Hampel said Beqiri’s sole role was to import the vehicle and provide “safe storage” for it in his garage until the drugs were removed.
“Beqiri’s defence was that he was an innocent dupe who imported the car in good faith for his own use and was unaware that drugs were concealed in it,” Judge Hampel said.
