Whiff of $300,000 in cannabis
By Les Kennedy
July 14, 2005
A police drug sniffer dog on a routine sweep of Sydney's domestic airport has uncovered 10 kilograms of cannabis in a passenger's luggage.
Police involved in yesterday's early-morning operation allegedly found the cannabis, which has an estimated street value of $300,000, in vacuum-sealed plastic bags inside a travel bag.
Police said the cannabis was in the luggage of a man who had arrived on a Virgin Blue flight from Adelaide.
The alleged courier, a 36-year-old man from Kingsford, was detained when he collected the bag from the baggage carousel.
He was charged late yesterday with supplying an indictable quantity of a prohibited drug and possession of a prohibited drug.
He was refused bail and will appear before Waverley Local Court today.
It is the second arrest in five weeks related to drugs being allegedly transported through Sydney's domestic airport.
On June 9 detectives arrested a Qantas domestic baggage handler, Raymond Camilleri, 40, and charged him in connection with 246 grams of cocaine, with a street value of $60,000, flown to Melbourne airport.
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Police alleged Camilleri tipped off the courier to the fact his bag had been intercepted by police.
The arrests appear to support the failed defence claim by Schapelle Corby, convicted in Bali for marijuana importation, that the drug could have been put in her boogie-board case when she flew from Brisbane to Sydney to catch her Bali flight.
The arrest of Camilleri, who has been charged with hindering a police investigation, came out of a covert surveillance operation in February on the Rose Bay home of businessman Kyran Frederick Terry, 37, according to a police statement of facts tendered before Central Local Court.
