Corby associates linked to longstanding drug run
By John Stewart, Renata Gombac
Posted Fri Dec 7, 2007 7:29pm AEDT
Updated Sat Dec 8, 2007 12:05pm AEDT
The ABC has obtained evidence suggesting convicted Australian drug smuggler Schapelle Corby had connections to a regular drug trade between Queensland and Bali.
The Gold Coast beauty student was arrested in Bali three years ago with four kilograms of marijuana inside her boogie board bag.
Corby's arrest and trial generated enormous media coverage and sympathy.
At first many Australians believed Schapelle Corby's claims that she was an innocent victim of malicious baggage handlers using airline passengers to move marijuana overseas.
But a number of revelations since then have undermined those claims.
Now ABC Radio's PM and the ABC's Investigative Unit has obtained a Crime Intelligence Report from the Queensland Police Service which outlines details of a longstanding drug run involving associates of Corby.
On September 16, 2004, a 53-year-old woman called Kim Moore walked into a police station near Gladstone in central Queensland and made a statement.
The police officer on duty typed it up under the heading 'Queensland Police Crime Intelligence Report'.
Ms Moore had information about a drug run operating between Brisbane and Bali. Excerpts from the statement show she claimed amphetamines were being taken to Bali on commercial passenger flights.
"The other young gentleman from the Gold Coast, he was carrying three-four times a year - they took it in turns," her statement reads.
Ms Moore claimed the amphetamines were wrapped in heavy, waterproof tar paper to avoid detection by X-ray machines and hidden inside a bag with a false bottom.
"The information I got was that it was covered with oily tar paper, which cannot be picked up through customs, or if it goes through any of the cameras it looks like it's a [bag] bottom," she continued.
She also claimed the drug couriers sometimes used false passports to avoid attracting the attention of customs and the Australian Federal Police (AFP).
"They can't use their own passports because they would have to go underneath their own names," she said.
"The only time that [name suppressed] has used his own name is when he is on holidays, but if he goes over and does a drug run then [he] uses an alias."
Police report
The informant also gave the Queensland Police a tip-off which led to a raid on a property near Gladstone in September 2004. The raid was a success and police busted a commercial marijuana operation.
"The marijuana which he got ready to take up north to various buyers he had up there plus ... the amphetamines he used to make - I saw the machine he used and everything else," Ms Moore continued.
Police drew up a Crime Intelligence Report based on Ms Moore's statement.
"Miriam Vale Police have received information from an informant in Miriam Vale, to effect a man in his 20s is involved with the manufacture and distribution of amphetamines," the report reads.
"Information is that these drugs are manufactured in or near Woodridge, information is that this male person lives on the Sunshine Coast.
"Information is that the drugs are in a powder form and tablet form and are transported by the man himself to Bali. The informant suggests large quantities are being moved to Bali. These flights are purported to be on Mondays.
"Information is that along with the man, two persons with the given name [suppressed] are also involved with the transport of these drugs."
The ABC has confirmed the four men named in Ms Moore's statement are all associates of Schapelle Corby.
Importantly, the statement was made three weeks before Corby's arrest in Bali on October 8, 2004, before the Queensland beauty student became a media celebrity.
Drug connections?
The statement raises the possibility that Corby was part of a bigger, established drug ring which involved trips to Bali every three to four months.
A check of flight records obtained in Indonesia shows that three of the four men named in the statement have visited Bali. One of the men visited Bali four times between 2001 and 2004.
One of the men arrived two weeks before Corby's arrest on October 8, 2004. Another man named in the statement arrived in Bali on October 20, 2004 - just 12 days after Corby's arrest.
Flight records also show that Corby herself travelled to Bali at least seven times between 1993 and 2004.
Three of the men named in the statement have convictions for possessing or producing marijuana. The fourth man has no criminal record but is nominated as a suspect in a hotel robbery by Queensland Police.
The ABC understands the Bali drug run stopped the day Corby was arrested.
The four men named in the statement are all now living quiet lives in Queensland, in far better circumstances than Corby, who has another 17 years to serve in a Balinese jail.
The ABC contacted Corby's mother, Roseleigh, who said she would not comment because she was unhappy with John Stewart's previous reports about her family.
Corby's sister Mercedes also rang PM from Bali, where she is currently living. Mercedes Corby also complained about John Stewart's previous reporting, and said the ABC's facts in this story were wrong, but she would not explain how.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/07/2113162.htm
Topic: Oh I didn't know it was there........ Corby the lying toe rag. (Read 1841 times)