NEWS: Coke ring on run

December 07, 2007 03:32pm
Article from: AAP

AN international drug smuggling syndicate imported up to 4kg of cocaine every month for four years, Australian Federal Police say.

The AFP alleged the syndicate conspired to import cocaine using an international network of drug couriers.

There have been arrests in Canberra, Melbourne and Holland.

"They (the couriers) were ingesting bodily the cocaine between 200g to a kilo at a time, using predominantly condom packaging," AFP Assistant Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg said today.

Police believed the syndicate operated for between three and four years.

"We are looking at a number of persons internationally and there may be further arrests," Mr Quaedvlieg said.

A Canberra man alleged to be a major player the drug smuggling syndicate appeared briefly in Melbourne Magistrates Court today.

Julian Cazabon, 37, was remanded in custody to reappear on March 13 on a charge of conspiring to import a marketable quantity of cocaine into Sydney.

It was alleged that between September 11 and September 20 this year he conspired with others in Victoria, the ACT and NSW as well as the Netherlands, Thailand and Canada to import the cocaine.

The names of his co-accused were suppressed by the court.

The other alleged kingpin of the drug ring, a 40-year-old man from Melbourne, was arrested in Amsterdam after the AFP alerted Dutch authorities.

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Nabbed: Australia's most wanted fugitive caught in Amsterdam
John Silvester
December 7, 2007

AUSTRALIA'S number-one fugitive, once dubbed by police as the drug dealer to the stars, has been captured in Holland after three years on the run.

The man, one of the most influential figures in Melbourne's underworld, was grabbed by federal police as he was about to board a plane in Amsterdam. Police believe they have cracked a major drug syndicate with connections in Australia, South-East Asia and Canada.

Police also arrested two other men, in Melbourne and Canberra, and seized computers and documents.

The fugitive, whose name is suppressed by court order, was originally arrested with two kilograms of cocaine in his possession in August 2000 and was then persuaded to become Australia's biggest drug informer.

The former private-school boy turned nightclub bouncer helped set up drug dealer Tony Mokbel, crime patriarch Lewis Moran and several other key underworld figures — often taping his targets with a hidden tape recorder.

When he learnt of serious police corruption, he went to the Ethical Standards Department and turned on the drug squad.

He provided information that led to the arrest and conviction of three drug squad police — Detective Senior Sergeant Wayne Strawhorn, Detective Sergeant Malcolm Rosenes and Detective Senior Constable Stephen Paton.

The drug dealer's network included notorious drug dealers, bent police and A-list celebrities.

He once bragged to Mokbel and others that he was dating TV journalist Naomi Robson.

Robson later went public to say: "There was no close relationship; I hardly knew the bloke. He was a casual acquaintance."

In 2003, he was given a heavily discounted sentence for drug trafficking on the condition he agreed to give evidence against Mokbel.

After serving part of his sentence, he convinced the Adult Parole Board to allow him to move overseas in 2004 because of fears for his safety.

He was released on the strict condition he returned to give evidence.

But once overseas he refused to return and disappeared.

An expert in identity theft, he is believed to have lived under several aliases while in Europe and Asia and remained a prodigious drug trafficker.

His police record shows convictions for more than 400 fraud offences.

In 2005, a warrant was issued for his arrest for breaching parole.

He first came to notice in 1999 during a drug squad investigation into the Moran family's drug-dealing enterprise.

At first, he was seen as a peripheral figure but a police investigation concluded he was a major drug trafficker who passed himself off as a successful businessman. His partners — Lewis, Mark and Jason Moran — were all shot dead during the underworld war.

A police profile found he spent $80,000 in the previous 12 months on hire cars, and $150,000 on air fares. He had 30 aliases, and was one of the biggest drug movers in Melbourne. He was known to spend $5000 on a night out.

At one point, he pleaded to leave Australia because there was a million-dollar contract on his head.

Police will seek his extradition for his breach of parole and he is likely to face fresh drug trafficking charges.

His initial sentence reduction for agreeing to give evidence against Mokbel may be revoked as he fled overseas before the trial.

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Coke ring on run
December 7, 2007 - 5:49PM

Police expect more arrests after an alleged major player in an international cocaine smuggling ring appeared in a Melbourne court today.

Julian Robert Cazabon, 37, faced Melbourne Magistrates Court on a charge of conspiring with three others to import cocaine into Sydney.

His arrest in Canberra yesterday came the day after the Australian Federal Police (AFP) took a major step in smashing the drug ring with the arrest of one of the country's most wanted men in The Netherlands.

The 40-year-old Melbourne man, arrested by Dutch police as he tried to board a plane in Amsterdam on a false passport, had been wanted by Australian authorities for three years after fleeing the country while on bail in 2003.

The man, whose name has been suppressed by the courts, feared he was being targeted by criminals after he became a police informant and gave evidence against convicted drug trafficker and gangland figure Tony Mokbel.

He is believed to have boasted to police about supplying drugs to a host of celebrities and of his relationship with former TV presenter Naomi Robson.

The AFP will seek his extradition and he faces two counts of conspiring to import cocaine.

The AFP today claimed the international drug smuggling ring had spanned three continents, operating out of the Netherlands, Thailand and Canada, importing up to four kilograms of cocaine into Australia every month for the last four years.

AFP assistant commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg said the syndicate had used an international network of drug couriers and, while the quantities were not large, the shipments were frequent.

"They (the couriers) were ingesting bodily the cocaine between
200 grams to a kilo at a time, using predominantly condom packaging,'' Mr Quaedvlieg told reporters in Canberra.

"We believe that the syndicate was using up to three to four couriers per month.''

The investigation is on-going and further arrests are likely.

"We are looking at a number of persons internationally and there may be further arrests,'' Mr Quaedvlieg said.

The arrest of a courier last year sparked the AFP investigation, Mr Quaedvlieg said.

"We've been working on this case for about 12 months,'' he said.

"It started with the arrest of a courier about 12 months ago and has taken us 12 months to identify who the members of the syndicate are.''

Mr Quaedvlieg alleged Cazabon, who did not seek bail today, was "one of the key organisers'' of the drug ring.

Magistrate Amanda Chambers remanded Cazabon, of Campbell in the ACT, to reappear at Melbourne Magistrates Court on March 13 next year.

The names of his co-accused were suppressed.

As part of the drug bust, another man was arrested yesterday at his home in Melbourne's Hawthorn.

The 31-year-old man, whose name has also been suppressed, faced Melbourne Magistrates Court last night on a money laundering charge.
He was bailed to reappear at the court on December 20.

Canada's Mounties were also involved in the international investigation because many of the couriers came from Canada.

"The cocaine and other drugs that were sourced by the syndicate were sourced from both South-East Asia and Canada,'' Mr Quaedvlieg said.

The AFP searched five Melbourne premises as part of the bust yesterday, in Southbank, Prahran, South Yarra, St Kilda and Hawthorn, seizing credit cards and materials which could be used in the production of narcotics.

Mr Quaedvlieg said the sting was a major success and had "significantly disrupted'' the drug-running syndicate.

AAP

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Men arrested in Aust, Netherlands over alleged drug ring
07/12/07

A Canberra man accused of being a major player in an international drug smuggling ring has faced the Melbourne Magistrates Court, and police are seeking to extradite another Australian from the Netherlands.

Julian Cazabon, 37, from Campbell in the ACT, was extradited to Victoria after being arrested in Canberra yesterday.

He has been charged with conspiring to import cocaine and will be remanded in custody until he faces court again in March

Roman Quaedvlieg says the Australian Federal Police (AFP) will allege he was involved in a syndicate that operated out of Australia, Canada and the Netherlands that used couriers who swallowed packages of cocaine to smuggle the drugs.

"We'll allege that he was one of the key organisers," he said.

The court heard that Cazabon is on medication and investigations into his case are ongoing.

Mr Quaedvlieg says he expects more Australians will be arrested.

"We are still continuing our investigations," he said.

"We are looking at a number of persons internationally."

A second man has been arrested in the Netherlands in connection to the alleged drug ring.

The AFP will seek the 40-year-old Australian's extradition.

He is believed to be the ringleader of the operation, and his name has been suppressed.

Mr Quaedvlieg says they will contact the federal Attorney-General's Department soon to begin the extradition proceedings.

"There are a number of matters in which this person is involved in Victoria, a number of outstanding judicial matters," he said.

"I believe he has raised some matters in relation to his safety but the detail of that is to be put to the Victoria Police."

A third man alleged to have been involved in the syndicate has been arrested in Melbourne.

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Celebrity cocaine customers
Keith Moor
December 07, 2007 12:00am

THE supergrass arrested in the Netherlands this week once bragged to detectives he'd handled drugs worth $30 million in the late 1990s.

He claimed he obtained huge amounts of cocaine from the Australia-wide drug syndicate run by murdered underworld figure Lewis Moran and his son Jason and stepson Mark.

The supergrass then stunned detectives by naming his celebrity customers.

He provided Victoria Police with taped evidence implicating music, sport and TV stars.

The dealer identified the household-name celebrities, before being convicted of serious drug offences in 2003.

Among those named as regular cocaine customers were:

ONE of Australia's biggest rock performers.

A LEADING female actor who spent years starring in one of Australia's longest-running television dramas.

A PROMINENT retired AFL player connected to a male actor who surprised detectives by turning up at a cocaine dealer's house in Docklands during a raid.

SEVERAL leading Victorian barristers.

Police considered investigating the celebrities further to try to corroborate the dealer's claims, but decided against singling them out.

Force priority is to chase drug dealers, not users.

The supergrass not only agreed to give evidence against Tony Mokbel, but to also work undercover for the drug squad to tape Mokbel doing deals.

The supergrass hoped to negotiate a lesser sentence after being charged in 2000 with serious drug offences.

He agreed to take part in controlled deliveries of chemicals to Mokbel, and also bought amphetamines, cocaine and ecstasy from Mokbel while secretly taping the transactions.

The supergrass -- who eventually left Australia and refused to return to testify against Mokbel -- taped phone calls by Mokbel involving millions of dollars and tonnes of drugs.

Yet it was a relatively minor importation of less than 2kg of cocaine -- for which he would have made just over $100,000 -- that saw Mokbel finally convicted of drug smuggling.

Last year, Mokbel was jailed in his absence for 12 years and ordered to serve a minimum of nine years.

Mokbel had skipped bail and disappeared near the end of his trial. He has since been captured in Greece and is fighting extradition.

Even though he refused to give evidence against Mokbel, the supergrass played a major role in the AFP being able to charge him.

Mokbel cultivated the supergrass as a friend, largely because he was the most accomplished speed and ecstasy pill-maker in Australia.

The two were discussing Mokbel's plans to establish regular cocaine importations in the street one day in late 2000 when a car pulled up nearby and tooted. Mokbel asked the supergrass to hang around while he went over for a quick chat with the driver.

He then whispered into his tape that Mokbel's associate was driving "FCJ-376, a maroon Ford sedan". When Mokbel came back he was caught on tape telling the supergrass the man in the car was his inside man at United Parcel Service and would ensure the planned cocaine importation from Mexico would get through undetected.

"He's got the keys. He's the boss and he goes in and gets it for me," Mokbel said on tape.

Police checked the registration and found the car belonged to Ron Cassar, second in charge at UPS in Melbourne.

The AFP used information obtained by the supergrass on secret tapes to set up a sting operation that snared Mokbel and four other key players in the cocaine racket.

Mokbel was worried he too would be picked up, but relaxed after several days and on December 1, 2000, told the supergrass about having got away with it.

Mokbel was caught on tape making a damning admission to the supergrass over his leading role in the cocaine smuggling.

AFP agents and Victoria Police kept Mokbel under surveillance before arresting him on August 24, 2001.

In the late 1990s, the supergrass was one of the first drug dealers in Melbourne to realise that ecstasy was rapidly becoming the drug of choice, and that making it in Australia would be more profitable than importing it.

He made it his business to learn how to make professional-looking ecstasy tablets and amphetamine-based speed tablets, designed to be sold as ecstasy.

On perfecting the recipe, he sold his skills to the Moran syndicate.

Attempts by Mokbel to lure the supergrass away from the Morans helped fuel Melbourne's underworld war.

Mokbel has since been accused by Victoria Police of murdering Lewis Moran in 2004, and will face court over the murder if he is extradited back to Victoria from Greece.

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Drug dealer to the stars' alleged accomplice in court
Keith Moor with Katie Bice
December 07, 2007 03:02pm

POLICE say a global drug ring imported up to 192kg of cocaine after a string of arrests, including an Aussie fugitive and a man who appeared in a Melbourne court today.

The drug smuggling syndicate imported up to 4kg of cocaine every month for up to four years, Australian Federal Police say.

The AFP alleged the syndicate conspired to import cocaine using an international network of drug couriers.

"They (the couriers) were ingesting bodily the cocaine between 200g to a kilo at a time, using predominantly condom packaging," AFP Assistant Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg said today.

"We are looking at a number of persons internationally and there may be further arrests," Mr Quaedvlieg said.

A co-accused of an underworld supergrass linked to a global cocaine smuggling syndicate has appeared in a Melbourne court.

Julian Robert Cazabon, 37, faced Melbourne Magistrates' Court briefly this afternoon after being extradited from Canberra yesterday.

Mr Cazabon faces once charge that he conspired between September 11 and 20 this year to import a marketable quantity of cocaine into Sydney.

Prosecutor Michelle Sewell asked for a suppression order on the names of Mr Cazabon's alleged co-conspirators, telling the court investigations were continuing.

Mr Cazabon's lawyer Beth Glynn said his client would not be applying for bail but custody officers should note he was on prescription medication for the next five days.

He was remanded in custody to appear in court again in March.

The high-profile convicted drug dealer nabbed in the Netherlands on Wednesday is the former Melbourne-based supergrass who secretly taped crime boss Tony Mokbel for police.

He once dated TV host Naomi Robson and bragged to police about his celebrity cocaine clients.

* Special report: Melbourne's underworld
* Hard drugs: Celebrity cocaine customers

Those he dobbed in as his drug customers included top models, entertainers and other members of Melbourne's A list.

Australian Federal Police agents tipped off Dutch police he was in the Netherlands and will seek to extradite him to Victoria to face serious drug charges.

He was captured at Amsterdam airport on Wednesday as he was trying to leave the country.

His arrest after a long surveillance operation ended a three-year hunt for the man, whose name has been suppressed by Victoria's Supreme Court.

The supergrass was among three alleged members of the organised crime gang picked up during the operation, which has involved the AFP working with various overseas agencies.

More arrests are expected.

AFP agents picked up two of the supergrass's associates in Melbourne and Canberra yesterday.

It will be alleged the Melbourne man was the syndicate financier while the supergrass and the Canberra man were allegedly the kingpins of the global cocaine smuggling ring.

The Canberra man is expected to be extradited to Melbourne today to face drug charges.

AFP agents raided five Melbourne addresses yesterday and arrested the alleged financier in a Hawthorn home.

They searched his property and seized credit cards and items with the potential to be used in the production of drugs.

Properties at Southbank, Prahran, South Yarra and St Kilda were also raided.

The cocaine smuggling syndicate was allegedly operating out of the Netherlands and was sending drugs to Australia, Canada and other countries.

The court heard today that offences also took place in Victoria, the ACT, NSW and Thailand.

The alleged operation specialised in getting drug couriers to hide cocaine in their bodies, often inside condoms, before boarding commercial flights to destinations around the world.

The supergrass, arrested this week as he was trying to fly out of Amsterdam, was instrumental in getting Victoria's drug squad scrapped in 2001.

Evidence gathered by him was crucial to the convictions of two corrupt members of the squad.

Robson admitted to the Herald Sun last year that she was involved in a relationship with the supergrass without knowing he was a conman and drug dealer.
She said she dated him for several months in 2000, unaware he was dealing drugs with Mokbel and corrupt police.

Mokbel was secretly taped talking to the supergrass about the supergrass's relationship with the former host of Seven's Today Tonight.

"So how's Naomi?" Mokbel is heard to ask during a salacious discussion between the two men about their intimate affairs.

"She is all right, she's made, yeah," the supergrass replied, much to the delight of police monitoring the conversation.

The supergrass was a regular at parties attended by Victoria's sporting identities and socialites.

He provided Victoria Police with the names of his celebrity cocaine clients.

He played a major role in the AFP being able to get Mokbel charged and convicted of importing cocaine from Mexico to Australia.

The supergrass fled overseas from Melbourne in May 2004 when underworld figures put a $1 million bounty on his head after discovering he was a police informer.

He later demanded $500,000 to return and give evidence against Mokbel – reneging on a deal struck for a reduced sentence on his own drug charges in return for testifying.

Magistrate Barbara Cotterell said at the time the supergrass's emailed request for money to give evidence that he'd already promised was "virtually blackmail".

The supergrass's parole was revoked in 2005 and a warrant for his arrest was issued after he failed to keep his promise to come back to Australia and step into the witness box.

He still has three years to serve of his original Victorian sentence and will be returned to jail to complete it if Australia succeeds in getting him extradited from the Netherlands.

The supergrass was arrested on Wednesday under an AFP warrant issued last month in Australia in relation to drug charges which carry a 25-year jail penalty. Victoria Police also has a warrant out for his arrest, which dates back to him absconding in 2005.

The 40-year-old man cannot be identified because his name has been suppressed by court order.

Victoria Police Drug Taskforce Detective Inspector Steve Smith said the arrest was the result of a joint effort between the AFP and Victoria Police, with help from Interpol.

He said the man had absconded while on bail in 2003.

"We are pleased to have been able to provide assistance to the Australian Federal Police on this matter and we will continue working with them in relation to this person in the future," Det Insp Smith said.

"This person has always remained a person of interest to us and we are pleased he has been located and will be returned to Australia where he will face serious consequences for his actions," he said.

"His arrest today is an indication of the level of commitment of the members of the Drug Taskforce.
"We took steps to have his details listed on Interpol ensuring that he would come to the attention of international authorities and always remained confident that eventually he would be located and justice would be served."

Australia has had an extradition treaty with the Netherlands since 1988.

Tracking him down to the Netherlands was not easy because the supergrass is a master of disguise and bragged in 2004 that corrupt drug squad detectives taught him to be a counter-surveillance expert.

The AFP is expected to charge the supergrass with conspiring to import commercial quantities of cocaine into Australia.

He used his time on the run to allegedly play a major role in the worldwide cocaine smuggling ring.

One of the supergrass's criminal associates in Melbourne was police informer Terence Hodson.

Hodson and his wife Christine were shot dead in 2004.

A Victoria Police taskforce is investigating possible involvement by police in the killing.

The Hodsons were murdered soon after a secret Victoria Police document – which identified Mr Hodson as a police informer – was leaked.

Hodson claimed in the leaked 2002 document that the supergrass visited him at his home and offered him $50,000 to kill Carl Williams for Lewis Moran.

The supergrass was convicted in 2003 of five offences, including commercial trafficking of cocaine and amphetamines.

- with AAP

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Julian Cazabon in court on drug charge
Milanda Rout | December 07, 2007

A CO-ACCUSED of underworld supergrass who helped jail Tony Mokbel and uncover corruption in the police force has appeared in a Melbourne court over his alleged role in a major international drug ring.

After being captured in Canberra yesterday, Julian Cazabon, 37, appeared in a Melbourne court charged with conspiring to import a marketable quantity of cocaine into Sydney.

According to his charge sheet, it is alleged that between September 11 and September 20 this year he conspired with several others in Victoria, the ACT and NSW as well as the Netherlands, Thailand and Canada to import the cocaine.

The names of his co-accused were all suppressed by the court. His lawyer Beth Glynn did not seek bail for her client.

Magistrate Mandy Chamber was told Cazabon, who appeared in court in a white polo shirt and with short brown hair, is on prescription medication and has enough supplies to last five days.

The Australian Federal Police alleges Cazabon's syndicate conspired to import cocaine using an international network of drug couriers.

One of Australia's most wanted men and the other alleged kingpin of the drug ring was also arrested in the sting in the Netherlands on Wednesday.

The 40-year-old man from Melbourne was arrested by police in Amsterdam after the AFP alerted Dutch authorities.

Arrest warrants were issued in November for the man, who had absconded while on bail in 2003.
He had previously given evidence against convicted drug trafficker and gangland figure Tony Mokbel and corrupt detectives who were senior members of the now disbanded Victorian Drug Squad.

- with AAP

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Dealer to stars flies too close to the sun
John Silvester
December 8, 2007

WHEN the drug dealer to the stars was finally caught seven years ago dealing cocaine, he was made an offer too good to refuse — become a drug squad informer, or go to jail for several years.

The dealer knew a good deal when he saw it, and immediately jumped on board. It was August 2000, and no one knew at the time that as well as sinking some drug heavyweights he would bring down the drug squad itself.

The man who arrested him, Detective Senior Constable Stephen Paton, would live to regret ever meeting the dealer, as would his immediate boss, Detective Sergeant Malcolm Rosenes. Both would later be jailed for corruption.

Caught with two kilograms of cocaine, the dealer agreed to become Paton's informer. For more than a month the detective took statement after statement from his new source at secret meetings. The dealer became more than an informer, he became a double agent, who worked enthusiastically to trap Tony Mokbel and career criminal Lewis Moran.

They had no reason to doubt him, as he was one of the so-called Bollinger drug dealers — men who worked with the underworld and partied with A-list celebrities. His partner up to his arrest was Lewis Moran's stepson, Mark. Both Mark and Lewis were later killed in Melbourne's underworld war.

The informer was a charismatic former private school boy and nightclub bouncer.

People liked him, and as a confidence trickster and identity thief, his transition to living another lie was easy.

A born gossip, he would entertain detectives and gangsters with his stories from the A-list, dropping names of his so-called friends who included TV journalist Naomi Robson, an award-winning actor and one of Australia's best-known singers. Police did not target the celebrities.

But while working for the drug squad, the informer, whose name remains suppressed by court order, saw that some of the detectives were no better than the criminals.

At the time, the drug squad used a controversial method, known as controlled delivery. Detectives would buy precursor chemicals at wholesale rates then sell them to drug dealers at inflated blackmarket prices. The plan was to follow the chemicals to the target and then pounce.

But over the years the system had become unaccountable, and some police — including those working with the informer — started to pocket a slice of the action.

And the greedy Rosenes, a gambling addict, began to lean on the informer for more.

Ripped off and used, the informer started to realise that the deal he had done to avoid jail time was in danger. He could see that bent detectives were likely to be caught and he would go down with the ship. So he went to the Ethical Standards Department with his story, and they began a secret investigation, codenamed Hemi.

Using the methods he had been taught by the drug squad, he trapped the detectives, taping Rosenes' plans to traffic ecstasy tablets valued at $4 million.

The dealer's revelations and the subsequent investigations led to Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon scrapping the drug squad, banning the practice of controlled delivery, and introducing new ways to deal with informers.

In 2003 he was given a heavily discounted sentence for drug trafficking on the condition he agreed to give evidence against Mokbel. And after serving part of his sentence the conman convinced the Adult Parole Board to let him fly overseas in 2004 because of fears for his safety. He was released on the strict condition he returned to give evidence. Once overseas he disappeared.

In 2005 a warrant was issued for his arrest for breaching parole. While overseas he trafficked drugs back to Australia. While police spent three years trying to find him, in the end he was caught almost by accident. Federal police could not identify a voice they had recorded on phone taps as part of a separate drug investigation. Victorian detectives were called in, and used special voice identification software.

For the past week Dutch police monitored Amsterdam airport, waiting for the dealer to take a flight. He was grabbed on Wednesday, and police will seek his extradition to Melbourne to face fresh drug charges. He is also expected to lose the sentence discount he received after he failed to honour his understanding to give evidence against Mokbel.

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Drug suspect fears for safety if brought home
Annabel Stafford
December 8, 2007

THE Melbourne fugitive at the centre of an international drug syndicate arrested in the Netherlands this week fears for his safety if he is extradited to Australia, police say.

As he awaits extradition proceedings, at least three men have been arrested for their part in a cocaine importation syndicate spanning Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and South-East Asia.

Police have seized Julian Robert Cazabon, 37, who was extradited from the ACT to face the Melbourne Magistrates Court yesterday on a charge of conspiring with three other men to import cocaine. Cazabon will face court in March. A magistrate suppressed the names of Cazabon's co-accused.

It is alleged the four men conspired between September 11 and 20 in Victoria, the ACT, NSW, the Netherlands, Thailand, Canada and other places to import a marketable quantity of cocaine through Sydney.

The 40-year-old fugitive arrested in Amsterdam, who cannot be named for legal reasons, faces two counts of conspiracy to import cocaine.

Australian Federal Police believe the syndicate has been operating for three to four years and depended on drug "mules" to carry cocaine into Canada and Australia.

AFP border operations chief Roman Quaedvlieg said the drug couriers carried up to a kilogram of cocaine in condoms, which they swallowed. The cocaine was imported into Australia via Melbourne Airport.

Dutch police arrested the 40-year-old-man as he tried to board a plane with a false passport. The AFP will seek his extradition to Melbourne.

Mr Quaedvlieg said he believed the man had raised fears for his safety in Australia, but had not yet given any indication that he would use those fears to fight extradition.

With STEVE BUTCHER and AAP

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