NATION A cell and high waters

A FORMER Bondi cafe king will spend at least 18 years behind bars for trying to smuggle half a tonne of cocaine from Chile to Australia using fishing trawlers.

Sydney businessman Darren “Stripes” Mohr helped organise a boat to sail from Sydney Fish Market into international waters to collect $150 million worth of drugs from a South American “mother ship” in October 2016.

Yesterday the muscular, tattooed 46-year-old cried before he was sentenced to a maximum 32 years in prison, with a non-parole period of 18 years.

Justice Helen Wilson said the insecure, coke-addicted narcissist flew around the world arranging the sophisticated operation, seeking a “faster and more glamorous road to riches” in his “desire for power, prestige and authority”.

In March a jury found Mohr guilty of conspiring to import a commercial quantity of drugs over the foiled plot. Mohr, who formerly owned a cafe run by lifesavers from the hit television show Bondi Rescue, stood to make $5 million from the importation.

He held sway over his fellow conspirators in Australia but was the “trusted lieutenant” of the ring’s Thailandbased mastermind known as “Gutterball”, the court heard.

Mohr was not on the trawler that returned from waters south of Fiji empty after waiting days for the mother ship to turn up.

The fisherman who was at the helm of the trawler gave evidence that Mohr flew to Santiago in August 2016 to organise logistics with the Chilean suppliers.

The former security guard and mechanic also travelled to Thailand to further the drug plot, Justice Wilson said.

Mohr’s social media posts boasted a lavish lifestyle with expensive cars and holidays with a model girlfriend.

But he had a cocaine addiction and suffered from depression, the court heard.

Mohr told a psychiatrist that he grew up with privileged peers and often aspired for things he could not afford.

“He felt he should have had more,” Justice Wilson said.