R (Cth) v Derley; R (Cth) v Piras [2020] NSWDC 28

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R (Cth) v Derley; R (Cth) v Piras [2020] NSWDC 28 Hearing dates: 20 December 2019 Date of orders: 28 February 2020 Decision date: 28 February 2020 Jurisdiction: Criminal Before: Neilson DCJ Decision: See [85], [86] Legislation Cited: Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) Category: Sentence Parties: Regina – Crown Trevor Alfred Derley – Offender Robert Albert Piras – Offender Representation: Counsel S. Flood – Crown D. Dalton SC – Offender (Derley) P. Boulten SC – Offender (Piras) Solicitors CDPP – Crown Michael Croke & Co – Offender (Derley) Matouk Joyner Lawyers – Offender (Piras) File Number(s): 2017/00368380 2017/00368699 Publication restriction: Nil.

Sentence 1. Trevor Alfred Derley ("Derley") and Robert Albert Piras ("Piras") stand for sentence as a consequence of pleading guilty to a charge arising from an attempt to import a commercial quantity of methamphetamine. 2. On 26 October 2017, a shipping container was exported from the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas, which is on the west or Pacific coast of that country, west-south-west of Mexico City, 629 kms distant from the capital by highways. The shipping container was intercepted in the Panamanian port of Balboa by New South Wales Police, assisted by the Australian Federal Police, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration and Panamanian authorities. Concealed within the shipping container were 587 packages containing 313.40 kgs of a white crystalline substance, which was found to be methamphetamine. The range of purity of the sample of the drug assayed was between 76.7% and 80.3%. The estimated pure weight of the seized methamphetamine was 249.1 kgs. The interception was on 2 November 2017. After the drug packages were removed from the container, it was shipped from Balboa, destined for Port Botany, where it arrived on 28 November 2017. The shipping container was then delivered to a warehouse in Alexandria on 30 November 2017.