Drug lords busted by ‘kingpin’ sting
AUSTRALIAN Federal Police have revealed officers posed as big-time cocaine lords to tempt Queensland drug kingpins with special discounts before busting the syndicate in a major sting this month.
In a joint operation between the AFP and the Australian Crime Commission, two undercover agents played the roles of drug importers over three months, culminating in a deal with a Gold Coast syndicate to sell them 100 kilograms a month of cocaine.
The officers gave the syndicate a 1kg brick of fake cocaine on consignment as well as the keys to a government van for easy transport, pretending they had been smuggling it into the country on a container ship – the most common method of importation.
The deal was arranged on the sands of Broadbeach, and in popular nearby cafes and restaurants as well as the carpark of the Broadbeach United Soccer Club between November 2012 and February 2013.
The police lured the syndicate by telling them they had a massive shipment of cocaine arriving from overseas. The ploy is known as a reverse sting.
The syndicate boss was Andreas Schmidt, a father of five from Currumbin Valley who had served jail time in Germany for kidnapping and drug trafficking.
The other two were personal trainers who met each other in prison while serving time for serious drug offences – Nicholas Nigel Heilbronn, 34 from Everton Park and Vietnamese-born Cuong Van Le, 42 from Darra.
Details of the sting were revealed in the Supreme Court in Brisbane this month when the three men were jailed for conspiracy to traffic cocaine.
The undercover AFP agents negotiated a deal to sell 20kg of cocaine for $1 million to the syndicate and agreed to sell them up to 100kgs of the drug each month.
One undercover cop posed as “Frank”, a Calabrian fruiterer from Melbourne who had a taste for chilli and garlic pasta who moved money and drugs interstate hidden in fruit and vegetable deliveries.
The other called himself “Dane” who worked for Frank.
Dane initially told Schmidt they would hide the 20 bricks of cocaine in boxes of lychees or bananas transported by van from Melbourne but he later switched to apples.
Listening devices revealed the two officers mimicked the expletive-laden language and blokey mannerisms of the real drug barons they had spent their careers spying on.
They knew to send instructions covertly and to hide drugs ‘in plain sight’ – such as in fruit boxes.
They wrapped their fake cocaine in the same black gaffa tape favoured by drug dealers and stamped the block with a horse logo, a fashionable cocaine brand.
Schmidt negotiated to buy 100kg of cocaine and agreed to pay $1 million cash as an initial deposit. He agreed to take an initial shipment of 20kg, but agreed to build up to 100kg each month.
“We can do 100 easy,” Schmidt was recorded saying.
He told the cops he would sell through a network in Queensland, the NT, Sydney and Melbourne.
On February 6, 2013, Schmidt took possession of the 1kg fake brick, and cops followed him to his Currumbin Valley home and arrested him.
Schmidt, Heilbronn and Van Le were sentenced on December 14.
Heilbronn got eight years’ jail, with a non-parole period of four years, Le got seven years with a non-parole period of three years and Schmidt got 12 years with a non-parole period of seven years.