Shipment 'down the back of the container', alleged tape of Standen says
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday March 30, 2011
A FORMER Crime Commission investigator, Mark Standen, allegedly advised his alleged co-conspirator Bill Jalalaty on how to deal with the next shipment they were expecting, according to a conversation played to a Supreme Court jury."It's not good when people know it comes in rice," he allegedly told Mr Jalalaty during a meeting, secretly recorded at a city cafe in November 2007.Mr Standen is accused of conspiring with Mr Jalalaty and another man to import pseudoephedrine and pervert the course of justice. The prosecution alleges the men were expecting the drug precursor to be contained in their second shipment of rice.In the conversation played in Mr Standen's trial yesterday, Mr Jalalaty allegedly told Mr Standen he was expecting "60 bags of five kilos" within a container of 4500 bags before Christmas.Mr Standen said: "Right down the back of the container ... hopefully."As they continued their discussion, Mr Jalalaty said: "That's a lot of money ... 30 million ... that's worth more than a 100,000 a kilo," he said. Mr Standen replied: "Why wouldn't they just stop - no more risk."A little later Mr Jalalaty allegedly told Mr Standen that a bald man would be coming to pick up "those" bags.But Mr Standen advised him: "He shouldn't take the rice bags." He then allegedly advised Mr Jalalaty to tell the man: "Why can't you take it so that it can't be traced back here, so if something goes wrong no one knows."Afterwards Mr Jalalaty allegedly said he was not too worried because "I've got too many other things happening now ... plenty of other stuff, legal, coming in".The court also heard the first rice shipment, which the Crown alleges was to be a "test" shipment, contained weevils and had to be fumigated and quarantined.
© 2011 Sydney Morning Herald