Two drug smugglers who tried to import cocaine into Australia inside a DVD player have been sentenced to time behind bars.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Lenin Manyathala, 29, and Osaro Peterson Ojielumhen, 39, were caught in an elaborate sting by federal police officers in 2011, after a suspicious package came to the attention of Customs.
The package supposedly held a DVD player and speakers, but Customs officers noticed something strange inside.
They pulled the DVD player apart, and found 325.1 grams of cocaine, with a purity of 60 per cent, hidden in black plastic wrapping.
Authorities swapped the drugs with an "inert substance", before placing a listening device inside the DVD player.
An AFP officer then posed as an Australia Post courier, and tried unsuccessfully to deliver the drugs to a home in Higgins.
Instead, police dropped off a collection reminder card and waited for the two men to pick up the package from Kippax Post Office.
Officers then tailed Manyathala and Ojielumhen to a home in Hughes.
Through the listening device, officers heard the men unpack the goods, before one said.
"This is good quality, we need to sell this at a good price."
The pair were arrested and charged with the Commonwealth offence of attempting to possess a marketable quantity of a border controlled drug.
More than two years later, they faced Acting Justice John Nield in the ACT Supreme Court for sentencing.
The court heard the pair were "cogs in the wheel" of a larger drug syndicate.
"They were not mere couriers, people simply engaged to pick up the package from the post office and take it to a particular address," Acting Justice Nield said.
"They were acting equally and together for a financial gain," he said.
Acting Justice Nield said would both earn money from their actions, whether they planned to sell the drugs in bulk to another party, or sell directly to users.
The maximum penalty for the offence is 25 years, a $550,000 fine, or both.
"By any means, this is a serious offence," Acting Justice Nield said on Wednesday.
The quantity of drug, 196 grams of pure cocaine, was almost 100 times the marketable quantity of two grams, but less than the commercial quantity of two kilograms.
Manyathala, who was born in South Africa, was sentenced to seven years and two months jail, with a non-parole period of four years and eight months.
He has already spent time in custody and will be eligible for release on parole in May 2018.
Nigerian-born Ojielumhen was sentenced to six years jail.
He has also been spent time on remand and will be eligible for parole in January 2017.
Both men may be deported once they are released.
