Two men have each been jailed for at least seven years in Queensland for attempting to possess 30 kilograms of cocaine that was hidden in a shipping container.
Mark Anthony Dumenil, 50 and Hashanth Arjuna Kulatunge, 51, faced Brisbane Supreme Court on Wednesday for sentencing on one count each of attempting to possess commercial quantities of unlawfully imported border-controlled drugs.
The pair had gone on trial last year on the more serious charge of importing drugs but the jury failed to reach a verdict.
Covert police devices captured the pair discussing the "ridiculous" payday they anticipated from passing on the cocaine to co-offenders in Brisbane.
Kulatunge pleaded guilty at the start of the trial, and Demenil was found guilty, on the lesser charge of attempted possession.
The two Melbourne business owners had a venture to import recycled rubber.
On January 8, 2018, the Australian Border Force X-rayed a shipping container that had arrived in Brisbane from Colombia and found 99 plastic-wrapped packages hidden in its roof rails that contained a total of 33 kilograms of powder equating to 26.5kg of pure cocaine.
The Australian Federal Police removed the cocaine and replaced it with an inert substance and hidden listening devices.
Justice David Jackson said Dumenil had arranged for the container to be imported, and he and Kulatunge took flights to Brisbane to meet the shipment at a warehouse ten days later.
"It was a prolonged and complicated process that took a few hours, removing 99 packages from the container's roof, putting 60 packages in a suitcase and then hiding the remaining 39 in a shed," Justice Jackson said.
Justice Jackson said both men knowingly engaged in criminal conduct for personal gain, as shown by recordings from devices hidden in the "fake cocaine" packages.
"Dumenil said to Kulatunge 'We are going to get good f***ing money out if this. It's going to be ridiculous'," Justice Jackson said.
He said the pair also discussed asking for more money as there was more cocaine in the shipping container than anticipated.
Kulatunge negotiated an additional $200,000 for the extra 39 packages on top of $700,000.
Justice Jackson said the men "expected a very substantial reward for their involvement" and Kulatunge had played a bigger role in the offending by asking for more money.
Over the next day the pair went to a Bunnings store to purchase paint and a filling agent to repair the container and had drinks in the Queen Street Mall while being surveilled by police, who arrested shortly afterwards.
Justice Jackson said both men lacked any relevant criminal history, had good prospects of rehabilitation and strong family support but he also needed to impose a sentence that would deter others.
Dumenil was sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment and Kulatunge was sentenced to 12 years, with both eligible for parole after seven years and two months.
