SYDNEY: A former senior customs officer has been jailed for at least 8½ years for his role in a major drug importation conspiracy in which millions of dollars worth of drug precursor was smuggled through Sydney Airport.
In a case that District Court Judge Peter Whitford said pointed to a “disturbing culture” within the Australian Customs Service – now the Australian Border Force – Christopher Phillip Cranney used his senior position to help facilitate the importation of more than100 kilograms of pseudoephedrine, the precursor to the drug ice.
“Mr Cranney was deliberately and enthusiastically involved in all four importations,” Judge Whitford said on Friday.
“He actively abused his senior position within the Australian border security team whose functions included the responsibility to prevent precisely the type of border violations he actively assisted in.”
The court heard that the plot involved more than a dozen customs officers and baggage handlers employed at Sydney Airport, as well as a number of drug couriers and those involved in sourcing the drugs from Vietnam.
When the couriers brought the pseudoephedrine to Australia in their stowed luggage, the baggage handlers then separated the offending bags and hid them in large luggage containers.
They then gave them to one of the customs officers who in turn passed them on to those involved in manufacturing ice.
Cranney used his position as the leader of the airport security team to manipulate rosters to ensure that he or one of his co-conspirators was on deck in the border security control room when the shipments were due to come in.
He provided advice based on his years of experience in airport customs to try to keep the syndicate from being detected – receiving $140,000 in total in return, some of which he spent on household appliances including a television set and dishwasher.
The members of the conspiracy successfully imported three shipments of pseudoephedrine into the country before they were eventually caught in a major Australian Federal Police operation while attempting to bring in the fourth shipment.
Cranney was charged with three counts of conspiring to import a commercial quantity of a precursor drug and two counts of bribing a Commonwealth public official.
Earlier this year, he was found guilty of one of the importation offences and the two counts of bribing a Commonwealth public official. He was found not guilty of two of the importation offences.
After their arrest a number of the customs officers provided assistance to police and returned some of the money they had been paid.
But Cranney refused to assist the police in any way, effectively claiming that he was unaware of what his fellow officers were involved in.
Judge Whitford described this claim as “incredible”.
“The substance involved was the precursor to the drug ice and this was well-known to the offenders and they believed it was for the manufacture of that drug and subsequent sale in the community,” he said.
The judge said that Cranney continued to dispute aspects of his involvement and had shown no remorse for the broader consequences of his actions.
