At a total weight of 28 kilograms, the 24 plastic bags of methamphetamine police found in Alexander Scott Hagan's car was the ACT's biggest ever drug haul.
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Now Hagan, the Curtin mortgage broker who moonlighted as a drug dealer, has been sentenced to 13 years and six months in prison, after a judge rejected claims he was acting under threat of harm from bikies to whom he said he owed a drug debt.
In March 2014, Hagan, 53, arranged for a friend to sell "8-balls" of cocaine on his behalf, which he did, in one month unloading 50 of them worth $50,000.
They also discussed an interstate drug run.
In October 2014, Hagan arranged to have his friend drive to Melbourne in Hagan's car, in which Hagan had hidden the 24 bags of ice worth more than $15 million. The car never made it to Melbourne.
The same day his friend was due to leave, police searched Hagan's house where they found MDMA in a chest of drawers weighing 232 grams and worth $28,000 wholesale. They found in his freezer a plastic bag full of methamphetamine identical to the bags in the car, a bag the judge found was payment for transporting the drugs down to Melbourne.
He was arrested, and pleaded guilty in May this year to three charges of trafficking cocaine, ice and MDMA.
The court heard Hagan was using cocaine at the time.
However, in sentencing the man on Friday, Justice John Burns said "your involvement in trafficking in cocaine and MDMA went well beyond trafficking in order to supply your own addiction.
"I reject the propositions that you were involved either because you were coerced or in order to expunge a drug debt.
"You were much more than drug mule.
"You were a willing participant in all these offences and I am satisfied your motive was profit."
Hagan failed in his attempts to convince the judge his involvement was coerced or under duress following threats to his family.
Justice Burns noted the value of the drugs, which suggested their owners were high in the operation's hierarchy. He was convinced Hagan was close to the drug's owners, or those who were close to them. He said Hagan had a significant amount of autonomy over the drugs and appeared to be under no supervision when organising their transport.
Hagan's argument about satisfying a drug debt was also rejected by Justice Burns, who said the claimed amount owed was $30,000, of which Hagan's bank accounts suggested he could have paid.
Justice Burns sentenced Hagan to 13 years and six months in prison, with a non-parole period of 8 years.
He will be eligible for release in October 2022.
