An alleged drug importer has denied knowing about the $350,000 worth of heroin found in a parcel he is accused of helping pick up from a post office.
"His naivety would be laughed at, frankly, by a jury," magistrate Robert Rabbidge said on Tuesday, when he denied the alleged offender's bail application.
Choo Hiang Ng, 34, learned his fate through a Mandarin interpreter as he watched the Queanbeyan Local Court proceedings from prison.
He previously pleaded not guilty to importing a marketable quantity of a border controlled drug and the case, involving two other co-accused, is set to go to trial.
Ng was arrested in January "very close to this courthouse", the magistrate said referring to the Queanbeyan post office around the corner.
The Victorian man was seen to be the driver of a car, whose passenger picked up the parcel in question.
Ng told police he had been offered $500 to help pick up the parcel but denied having any knowledge of drugs.
"As typically occurs in these cases, people point to each other and claim they have no knowledge. A jury will have to make that difficult determination," Mr Rabbidge said.
Commonwealth prosecutor Ella Gordon said she anticipated further charges would be laid relating to small quantities of three types of alleged drugs found in the car Ng was driving.
She opposed the man's bail application, citing the possibility he would need to commit crimes after police seized the imported drugs.
"There may be consequences for that financial loss," she said.
Ng previously told police he was unemployed and in financial difficulty.
Ms Gordon also argued the alleged offender was a flight risk due to him living in Australia on a bridging visa.
Defence lawyer Lee Ting described the case as purely circumstantial and said it came down to an issue of knowledge.
Mr Ting denied his client, who has lived in Australia since 2013, was a flight risk.
The magistrate ultimately refused the bid for conditional release.
"The drug trade is invidious and cruel and creates so many problems in so many Australian families," Mr Rabbidge said.
Ng is set to face court again next month.
