A young man has admitted trying to receive a lucrative delivery of unlawfully imported cocaine, which he claimed had been sent to his home at the behest of his friend "Pooh".
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Kyle Ian Christopher Wilson, 24, had been due to stand trial in the ACT Supreme Court next week after denying a charge of attempting to possess a marketable quantity of a border-controlled drug.
The Gordon man instead switched his plea to guilty on Thursday morning.
While the facts of Wilson's offending are yet to be agreed, ACT Policing said at the time of the unemployed man's arrest that about 1kg of cocaine had arrived in Australia from Nigeria last November.
Using an X-ray machine, Australian Border Force officers discovered the drugs inside a consignment that had been declared as "weavon & eyelashes".
It was addressed to a "Samantha Cherry" at a Gordon home, to which a police officer posing as a courier delivered the package after investigators had replaced the cocaine with an inert substance.
About three hours after Wilson, the occupant of the home, received the delivery on November 23 last year, police with a search warrant came knocking.
Police documents, tendered during an unsuccessful bail application last December, say Wilson made "full admissions" and said he suspected the package contained cocaine.
He told investigators a friend named Monty, who was saved in his phone as "Pooh Shiesty that's my dawg", had asked him to receive the delivery and promised him a cash payment for doing this.
An analysis of Wilson's phone also revealed he had exchanged messages with someone calling themselves "Bonoboo" on Signal, an encrypted messaging platform, about two weeks earlier.
"Bonoboo" told Wilson "this thing" was being sent from overseas, adding that a "big dog" had said so when the 24-year-old replied that he had believed it was coming from "within aus".
Wilson was arrested on the afternoon of the delivery. Save for a day he spent on bail late last month to attend his grandmother's funeral, he has been behind bars on remand ever since.
On Thursday, federal prosecutor Cecilia Pascoe said the consignment had ultimately been found to contain 706.98 grams of cocaine.
She had previously told the ACT Magistrates Court the drugs could be worth anywhere between $330,000 and $500,000 on the street.
Following the entry of Wilson's guilty plea, Chief Justice Lucy McCallum vacated the scheduled trial.
She also ordered a pre-sentence report, with an assessment of Wilson's suitability for an intensive correction order, at the request of defence lawyer Stephanie Beckedahl.
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The case will now be placed in an administrative list next Thursday, when a sentencing date will be allocated.
Wilson is the only person to have been charged in connection with the cocaine importation, which ACT Policing's drugs and organised crime team is still investigating.
Detectives released audio of a phone call believed to be associated with the case in June, asking for help to identify a man who was recorded saying he was "just calling up to enquire about my delivery".
Anyone able to identify the voice was urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, or via the Crime Stoppers ACT website, quoting reference 6955736. Information can be provided anonymously.
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