Canadians charged in Australian cocaine bust

Arrests come after further investigation of a December 2015 sting

A former Vice Canada music journalist and a Toronto man have been arrested after allegedly trying to smuggle cocaine into Australia.

The RCMP said the arrests come after further investigation of a December 2015 bust in which four other Canadians and an American were arrested at Sydney Airport for possessing nearly 40 kilograms of cocaine.

Yaroslav Pastukhov, 28, formerly of Toronto, and Ali Taki Lalji, 30, of Toronto, were arrested on Jan. 31, 2019, and have been charged with conspiracy to import cocaine.

They are in custody in Toronto, the RCMP said in a statement.

The men allegedly conspired with the five individuals to traffic cocaine into Australia, the RCMP said in a prepared statement.

Pastukhov, a former Vice Canada music editor and journalist, has been living in Montreal under an alias, police said. “This arrest by the RCMP came about as a result of efforts and collaboration on the part of multiple domestic and foreign partner agencies and is a testament to the commitment of all agencies to bring these subjects to justice,” RCMP Superintendent Chris Leather, Officer in Charge of GTA Serious & Organized Crime, said in a statement.

An Australian court heard Pastukhov allegedly cajoled the five to transport the drugs on a Dec. 22, 2015, flight arriving from Los Angeles, according to a Sydney Morning Herald report from the October 2017 sentencing hearings of Jordan Mykel Gardner, Nathaniel Brandon Carty, Robert Wang and Kutiba Senusi.

A judge at the hearings said she accepted the argument the men were drug mules who had been threatened with bodily harm to carry the cocaine in their luggage, the Herald reported.

Men allegedly conspired with the five individuals to traffic nearly 40 kilograms of cocaine into Australia

“I am very firmly of the view that these offenders were exploited by people who were ruthless, persistent and manipulative in recruiting them,” the judge said.

Gardner and Senusi were sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in jail, Wang received a minimum of four years and Carty received a minimum of three years and four months, the Herald reported.

Another drug mule, 19-yearold Canadian Porscha Wade, was separately sentenced in June 2018.

She was described in court as a Sunday school teacher and aspiring model, the Herald reported.

“I was a role model in the church,” she said, according to the Herald.

“Little kids look up to me and I just feel like I’ve let everyone down.”

Wade was sentenced to at least three years in prison.

Australian authorities have been quoted as saying that a kilogram of cocaine can sell there for five times more than it could retail for in Canada.