Failed bid to have charges thrown out
Four men accused of conspiring to import cocaine from Papua New Guinea into Queensland in one of the nation’s largest alleged cocaine plots have failed in their bid to have the charges thrown out of court.
In his decision handed down on March 28, Cairns Supreme Court Justice James Henry stated that the group – the alleged “boss” Salvatore “Sam” Formica, bar owner Aiden Anis Khoder, Sydney glazier George Machem and financial adviser Pierino Forni – should stand trial.
Formica, 37, from Niddrie in Melbourne’s northwest, and Khoder, a science student who runs a bar in Ascot Vale, Victoria, are accused of arranging an importation of 300kg of cocaine, worth about $90m, by light plane from PNG to Far North Queensland on August 30, 2018.
All four men are also accused of attempting to smuggle $164m worth of cocaine into Queensland on July 26, 2020, but the pilot David John Cutmore crashed on take-off from PNG.
Cutmore remained in custody in PNG, Justice Henry wrote.
The four are charged with conspiracy, and not with importation and attempted importation of commercial quantities of cocaine.
The commonwealth DPP chose the charge it laid, Justice Henry said.
The four accused conspirators asked Justice Henry to dismiss the conspiracy charges without them being heard in court.
“The dismissal here sought would, if granted, have the court dismiss two unheard charges committed for trial in respect of which there apparently exists a prima facie case,” he wrote.
“Nothing raised by the application, in its own right or cumulatively, supports the conclusion the interests of justice require the charges of conspiracy to be dismissed,” Justice Henry wrote.
This case is next listed for a two-day, pre-trial hearing on April 22, and no trial date has been set.