A Canadian man smuggled ice worth up to $6 million hidden in the lining of his suitcase in Melbourne in a bid to finance a medical marijuana business.
Wayne Hackett admitted to smuggling more than 15 kilograms of meth hidden in two suitcases into Melbourne airport in February this year.
The 27-year-old pleaded guilty to import a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug in the County Court of Victoria.
The street value of the ice was between $3.5 million to $6.89 million, prosecutors told the court.
The Ontario native admitted he imported the drugs but claimed he was unaware it was ice at the time, the court was told.
His lawyer Julie Buxton told the court her client agreed to courier the drugs in exchange for $40,000 to help provide for his young daughter and to set up a business.
“He wanted to set up a life for his children and his partner’s children,” she said.
The cash would also help him set up a business in the medical marijuana industry in Canada, Ms Buxton told the court.
Hackett had been driven to smuggle the drugs because his life became “completely unstuck” after he was evicted from his rental property and lost his job, she said.
The drug smuggler had a traumatic childhood and his mother died in “suspicious” circumstances when he was five years old, she said.
He was nabbed at the airport after border security noticed something suspicious about the suitcases and pulled him aside, the court was told.
When the officers X-rayed the bags they noticed something strange about the lining of the bags and, when opened, found what appeared to be a “crystalline” substance.
“What the hell … it looks like crystal f***ing meth,” Hackett said when the drugs were found.
Later drug tests confirmed the substance was methylamphetamine.
“It was opportunistic, unsophisticated and risky,” Judge Michael Bourke said of the crime.
Hackett will be sentenced at a later date, and his co-accused is listed for trial.
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