The Qantas Cover Up

THE QANTAS COVER-UPEXPOSING THE LIES THAT CONDEMNED

AN INNOCENT WOMAN

Saturday, 9 July 2011

On October 8th 2004, a young Australian woman, Schapelle Corby, was arrested at Bali Airport (Indonesia), when 4.2 kilos of marijuana was found in her boogie board bag after boarding a flight from Brisbane, Australia to Sydney (Australia), where she transferred to the international terminal. Many people believe the drugs were a domestic consignment (that should have been removed in Sydney), smuggled by corrupt insiders but missed due to incompetence and chance. She’s consistently denied any knowledge of the contraband, but she was sentenced to a savage 20 years in a hellish third World jail on the 27th May 2005.

This case continues to fascinate the Australian public, who at first supported her 100% and thought she was innocent - but a sustained campaign of vilification and smear, via one of the most narrowly monopolised media markets in the World, has turned opinion against her, thus protecting business links with Indonesia (worth billions) and the reputation of the national airline. This book explores the roots of this travesty, as now seriously mentally ill, she still hangs by a thin thread in prison. You could be next . . .


Dedicated to Schapelle and her loyal and loving family


Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear. Mohandas Gandhi


* Schapelle had no police past, no criminal profile and tested negative for all drugs

* In 2004, marijuana was over over 100 times cheaper on the streets of Bali, compared to Australia.

* A flow of marijuana FROM Australia, TO Indonesia does not exist and never has.

* No Australian before Schapelle, or after, has ever been caught smuggling kilos of weed TO Bali.

* Inexplicably, the Australian police carried out NO investigation into the Australian supplier and grower of the drugs.

* Other tourists, travelling from Australia to Bali, reported finding a mysterious block of cannabis in their luggage after arrival (to the Australian Consulate). Luckily, it wasn’t discovered by Bali customs officers. The Consulate refused to investigate.

* Senior Australian police assert that innocent passengers are routinely used as unwitting drug mules (by corrupt insiders) to ferry drugs between domestic airports. The marijuana in Schapelle’s bag was not concealed.

* Senior sources within Australian customs assert she was the victim of airport corruption, and say the idea an unhidden, bulky package of smelly weed sailed past all security checks is laughable. The wrappings were found to be slashed open by Bali customs.

* The Qantas baggage handlers that dealt with her luggage at Sydney Airport had criminal records as long as your arm and used innocent passengers as drug mules to shift 200 kilos of cocaine into Australia between June and December 2004. They smuggled 10 kilos of this haul the day Schapelle flew, at very much the same time. None of them were ever sentenced, and one was paid $800,000 by the New South Wales State Government, and allowed to keep three quarters of a million dollars of his criminal earnings, after he threatened to blow the whistle on corrupt police. An Ian Robert Chalmers (currently serving 12 years) oversaw this syndicate. He was a director of Macquarie Bank. Macquarie Bank own Sydney airport. The Qantas security manager in charge at that time also had known links members of this criminal gang, and the senior police officer watching the group, during a surveillance operation dubbed “Operation Mocha,” is now facing serious (unrelated) drugs charges.

* Schapelle traversed 4 air terminals and begged for a single frame of CCTV footage to prove her innocence. All film was mysteriously destroyed and the X-ray imagery “Disappeared” too. The Australian government has provided no explanation.

* She begged the Indonesian customs officers to weigh her luggage, to compare it to the Australian check-in weight. They refused.

* She begged the Indonesians to examine the drugs, and the bags they were wrapped in, for fingerprints, human DNA and plant source. They refused and burnt it, after the Australian Federal Police failed to use the Mutual Assistance Treaty to request these tests.

* The only evidence against Schapelle was the uncorroborated word of Indonesian customs officials (describing her actions and verbal responses when she was arrested). None of them spoke English and could not have understood her replies at that crucial point.

* Schapelle was also convicted of “Trafficking” marijuana (much more serious than mere possession, with much higher penalties). There was no evidence of this charge, and no evidence Schapelle was connected to any drug network.


How come a woman with no criminal record, and without a shred of evidence against her, has become so vilified by some sections of the Australian population? The comments on some of the newspaper stories are vitriolic, considering her alleged offence was just a few pounds of weed. Although Lindy Chamberlain’s “Crime” (now exposed as the frame-up it was) was much more serious, the strength of feeling and fascination about it is about the same. So what’s going on? I believe the media understood the deep roots of misogyny in our society, and tapped them to smear an innocent woman. Their motive will become clear.

However, invoking the witch is not without its hazards, as the Herald Sun newspaper spits the dummy (18 April 2011) about the public’s steadfast focus on Schapelle . . .

“Australia's highest-profile convicted drug trafficker's looming freedom has already ignited passionate public debate between people who insist she stay in jail and those loyal to her cause. She is reportedly not in the best physical and mental shape. Hopefully, the unrelenting spotlight will be switched off whenever she returns home.”

Because those ancient and powerful energies bend to no-one’s will.

“The Jungian view, about why a particular person hates one thing and not another, is that something resembling the hated thing actually lies, unrecognised, within the hater. The Jungian term for this is Shadow, something inside ourselves that we don't want to know about, and that we 'project' onto other people.” weavingandmagic.blogspot.com


“Prisoners of a nation's prejudicesJune 17, 2005

There are similarities in how Australia reacted to the Chamberlain and Corby cases, writes Anne Summers.

IT WAS probably inevitable that Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton would make contact with Schapelle Corby. After all, Australia's two most celebrated women of crime have a lot of experiences in common. "Seeing your verdict and the reaction to it made me feel like I had been kicked all over again," Chamberlain-Creighton wrote to Corby in her Bali prison last week. "My heart bleeds for you."

Chamberlain-Creighton knows what she's talking about. Until Corby, no other Australian woman had endured the national spotlight in quite the same pitiless way. It changed her and it will change Corby. But it should also tell us something about ourselves and why we as a nation are so willing to insinuate our anxieties and insecurities into the stories of these hapless women.

Chamberlain-Creighton and Corby have been the vehicles for an extraordinary national fixation, generating heated and polarising debate, inflaming passions, igniting fanciful rumours and sickening jokes, and creating levels of hysteria, including an astonishing media frenzy, that seem quite bizarre when you consider that both cases involved previously unremarkable young women who became infamous for being charged with crimes they both denied committing.”


Ex-husband claims Lindy Chamberlain was set upTue, 10 Aug 2010

The father of Azaria Chamberlain insists his ex-wife was accused of murdering their baby daughter at Uluru nearly 30 years ago to protect the Northern Territory's tourism industry.

Michael Chamberlain made his allegation on Australian television last night in a broadcast which also documented his former wife Lindy's return to the scene of a mystery that polarised the nation when nine-week-old Azaria went missing on August 17, 1980.

Her parents said Azaria was taken from the family tent by a dingo, a scenario initially supported by police.

However, Lindy was eventually charged and convicted of Azaria's murder after a seven-week trial in 1982.

She was sentenced to life imprisonment; Christchurch-born Michael was found guilty of acting as an accessory to murder but avoided jail time.

"We were seen to be the patsies, it was quite a political thing," Mr Chamberlain said.

He said hotels servicing what was then known as Ayers Rocks were worried about the impact on tourism if a dingo was to blame -- and pressurised the Northern Territory government.

"I think something was said to them like: 'You've got to fix this mess up because it might affect tourism'," Mr Chamberlain said.

"You've got to get somebody and get a conviction because you can't have dingoes running around killing kids -- or the fear of that happening."


Only 13 of 70 Bali terrorists remain in jail - Courier Mail 16 June 2010ONLY 13 of the 70 terrorists convicted over the Bali bombings and the attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta remain in jail.

Indonesian authorities have freed or paroled 57 Jemaah Islamiah terrorists who were convicted over their involvement in the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings and the 2004 embassy attack in Jakarta, which together killed 95 Australians and injured hundreds more.

Another 150 JI members or supporters still in jail for other crimes are scheduled to be released in the next 18 months.

According to a report released by the International Crisis Group in 2007, amongst 138 Indonesian convictions for terrorism, there were 5 executions and 11 life terms. Amongst the remaining 122, the average sentence was less than 9 years, with the majority released early. Within that number, there were only 5 sentences of 20 years. This means the Indonesian judge considered that an Australian woman carrying just over 4 kilos of pot, with no criminal record, deserved harsher punishment 117 violent terrorists. www.crisisgroup.org


In 2005, when Schapelle got 20 years, three Indonesian men beheaded three children, young Christian girls in a Muslim region, on their way to school. In 2007, one got 20 years, and the other two got 14 because they said they were “Sorry.”

“It is unclear what was behind the attack, but the girls attended a private Christian school and one of the heads was left outside a church leading to speculation that it might have had a religious motive.” BBC News, 29 October 2005Luckily for them, none was a young western woman, found with a few pounds of marijuana . . .


Condoning male violence against women . . .

Looks like Indonesia’s soft on crime if you murder a defenceless woman. Apparently (the judge said), Rosi didn’t “Mean” to kill Heidi, even though he stabbed her 37 times, including through the heart and kidneys.


Bali jail security chief on drug chargesThe security chief of a Bali prison where 11 Australians are serving time for drug offences has faced court for the first time over drug and ammunition charges carrying a maximum penalty of death by firing squad. Mohammad Sudrajat appeared relaxed as prosecutor Suhadi (one word) read out the charges against him. He was found guilty of the primary charge of possessing ammunition for a firearm without a licence. Sudrajat faces a maximum penalty of death and a minimum of 20 years in jail. AAP

But on 13 March 2008, News Com Au reported that Mohammad Sudrajat got just 4 years. No wonder he looked “Relaxed.” Kevin Rudd, Australia’s Foreign Minister, is refusing to say whether or not he’s still in prison, and why his 20 year “Minimum” shrank to a light slap on the wrist.


Schapelle’s an ordinary, law abiding woman.

Quote:

“Corby's blood and urine tests were negative.”Sydney Morning Herald -“My sister’s innocent, she’s never even smoked” 4 November 2004, an article referring to blood and urine tests for illicit drugs.


“I know many people believe that I packed a transparent, pillow-sized plastic bag of marijuana into my boogie board bag. Well . . . I didn’t hide it, I didn’t lock the bag but I did put my name, address and phone number clearly on it. Then I checked it in and brazenly boarded a flight that went via two major Australian airports . . . I wasn’t content to risk one airport, with a direct flight from Brisbane to Denpasar, but chose two - Brisbane and Sydney, with all their security checks. Then I willingly claimed it as my own when an Indonesian customs officer asked to inspect it. I don’t know anything about international drug smuggling, but I guess if criminals went about it like that, they’d be pretty bloody stupid.” From Schapelle’s book, “My Story,” page 7

“Why, if Corby was smuggling the drugs into Bali, did she not take the basic precaution of putting a lock on her boogie board bag? Why did she not take another obvious precaution and put the drugs behind the boogie board, which would have concealed them from anyone opening the bag? Instead, they were in front of the boogie board, visible the moment the bag was opened. Why did she not try to conceal the contents of the plastic bags by giving them a protective wrap? Sydney Morning Herald, “Weighing the Evidence,” 5 March 2005

ELEANOR HALL: Her defence team has rested its case, and now Schapelle Corby waits in a Bali prison to hear what her sentence might be if she's found guilty of drug smuggling. It's not yet known whether Ms Corby's defence team has persuaded the Indonesian judges that she's simply a victim of a domestic Australian drug smuggling ring. Professor Paul Wilson, the head of Criminology at Queensland's Bond University, has just returned from Bali where he testified in the case, and he's speaking here to ABC radio's Brisbane 612 presenter, Steve Austin.

PAUL WILSON: Basically I compared her characteristics, personal characteristics, background characteristics, with those of drug couriers. And I also analysed the crime as I saw it. I came to the conclusion, based on many, many facts, that she had no intent to put drugs in the bag, she had no knowledge of it, and that she was innocent. And I said that. ABC 30 March 2005

The verdict of the profiler . . .


Coals to Newscastle - In October 2004, marijuana was over over 100 times cheaper on the streets of Bali, compared to Australia.

Page 233 - The maximum Indonesian price for marijuana in 2005 was US30 cents a gram.

Page 234 - The maximum Australian price for marijuana in 2005 was $US31 a gram.


Lemon head?

In January 2005 - as shown in the United Nations World Drug Report of 2007, marijuana sold for just US30 cents a gram in Bali. Even “Ten times” this (as claimed by Colonel Sugiato, left), equals a mere $US3 a gram. But this drug sold for a whopping $US31 a gram in Australia at that time (according to the same report). So is Sugiato saying Australians regularly smuggled weed to Bali, to make a truly massive loss of $US28 a gram? What planet was he on? Does he think Aussies are stupid?

And despite making these bizarre claims, Sugiato refused to test the drugs found in Schapelle’s bag for quality or strength, or to discover their geographical origin. He also refused to test the bags they came in for fingerprints or human DNA.


Matthew Moore - Away with the fairies

Schapelle was sentenced to 20 years on the 27th of May

2005. On the 26th of May 2005, Australian journalist

Matthew Moore wrote a high profile article in The Sydney

Morning Herald, called “The Bali Buyers Who Crave Aussie

Gold.” It was quickly picked up and echoed by the rest of the

media pack, and claimed high grade Australian marijuana sold

at a premium price in Bali, to wealthy ex-pats. Moore’s article

didn’t quote one legitimate source, or any that could be

checked. They were all “Anonymous” - and if you Google

“Aussie Gold” (to see if there are other references to that

“Brand” of weed), you’ll find the only person who’s ever

heard of it is Moore. No law enforcement agencies in

Australia recognise the term either (they were asked).

Strange that.

Moore now slams the phone down on inquiries, ignores

correspondence and the entire hierarchy of the newspaper

steadfastly refuses to clarify or explain his bizarre article.

Sydney Morning Herald journalist Matthew Moore

Matthew, I have fairies at the bottom of my garden. If I give you an anonymous tip, will you write about them?


“This was the first seizure of incoming marijuana by Bali customs officers - hardly surprising when it would be worth just a fraction of the $65,000 street value in Australia” by Darryl Passmore, The Courier Mail, 20 March 2005

“And it is unprecedented for anyone to smuggle marijuana from Australia to Bali, at least according to the head of the police investigation, Colonel Bambang Sugiarto. He is unaware of any other case.” 4 November 2004, The Melbourne Age

A flow of marijuana FROM Australia, TO Bali, does not exist and never has . . .


“Then Michael dropped a bombshell - something I still ponder about long and hard, among a plethora of facts about this complex case that just doesn’t seem to add up.

‘Do you think the cops will come to my house to-day?’ Michael asked me.

‘What, they haven’t been there yet?’ I said, quite stunned. ‘I would have thought they would have been knocking on your door on Friday night.’

Schapelle had been at her Father’s place at Tugun packing her bags on Thursday before leaving to spend Thursday night with her Mother Roseleigh at Loganlea. Loganlea is just south of Brisbane and not far from Brisbane Airport. The travellers had decided it would be easier to make the international flight from there. Michael confirmed that the police had not been to either the Loganlea home or the Tugun home. They never went to either address in relation to Schapelle.

I found this strange. Ever since the first Bali bombing in 2002, Australian Federal Police (AFP) had formed a close relationship with their Balinese counterparts. They would have known of the arrest of an Australian on drug charges in Bali very quickly. The normal protocol would be for the AFP to contact Queensland Police and then, armed with a search warrant, accompany the ‘Local boys’ to both relevant addresses. As a police reporter, I have a number of Queensland Police contacts, from beat coppers to the most senior ranks. Every officer that I have spoken to about this omission has expressed great surprise that the Tugun and Loganlea homes were never searched.

‘I would have thought it would have been the first thing they would have done, it’s the logical thing to do from a police perspective,’ said one very senior Gold Coast officer, who did not want to be named.

‘If she had packed the drugs at either address, with our modern forensics we would have found evidence of it and then the Indonesians would have been presented with an open and shut case. You really have to wonder why the AFP never contacted us to do a search.’

There are not too many explanations for it. Perhaps it was just an oversight, but that seems unlikely.”

Journalist Tony Wilson exposed how police inexplicably failed to investigate the Australian source of the marijuana found in Schapelle’s bag . . . (pages 22 - 23)


As Tony Wilson’s inquiries showed, there was NO Australian police investigation into the Australian grower and supplier of the drugs found in Schapelle’s bag, despite the bizarre and unique crime of smuggling marijuana FROM Australia TO Bali. When confronted with this, everyone in Government ran from the question . . . and shifted the blame . . .

“No investigation was undertaken by the Queensland Police Service as this matter falls under Commonwealth legislation and, therefore, under the jurisdiction of the Australian Federal Police.” Neil Roberts, Queensland Police Minister - Letter, May 2010

“. . . the AFP did not have a jurisdictional role in the investigation of the Schapelle Corby matter.” Brendan O’Connor, Commonwealth Minister for the Australian Federal Police - Letter, June 2010


Other tourists found drugs of unknown origin in their luggage after flying from Australia to Bali . . .

ROSS COULTHART: There are good reasons for passengers to be suspicious. For there is a precedent for what Schapelle Corby says happened to her. The evidence of this couple, Dee and Steve. In June 1997, they arrived at their Bali hotel off a flight from Melbourne to find a large block of compressed marijuana in their luggage.

STEVE: When we got to the hotel room, my wife opened up the case, um yelled out my name. I turned around and she had a package of marijuana in her hands. Probably similar to the size of a loaf of bread.

DEE: Just a big plastic bag and it was all quite firm and packed.

ROSS COULTHART: Steve and Dee don't want us to use their last name because they know that somewhere in Australia there's a drug dealer wondering what happened to his dope. But they did report their find to the Australian Consulate in Bali — only to be given extraordinary advice.

STEVE: He said to me do you want the good news or the bad news and I said well give me ah good news. And he laughed and said there isn't any. And I said well give me the bad news. And he said you get caught with that and you'll be eating nasi goreng for the rest of your life in jail. He suggested that I flush it down the toilet. Flush the whole lot down the toilet. Get it out of my possession and don't go to the authorities under any circumstances at all.

ROSS COULTHART: When Steve couldn't flush it down the toilet, he sprinkled the marijuana over the hotel garden.

ROSS COULTHART: Ever cross your mind that Steve and you could be sitting in an Indonesian jail right now?

DEE: Absolutely that's what so scary about it.

ROSS COULTHART: It could have happened to you

DEE: It could have happened to us so easily.

ROSS COULTHART: There's nothing in Steve and Dee's background to raise a doubt about their account. But, amazingly, even after he came forward again with his story last month, no-one from any Australian police force has ever bothered to interview him.

STEVE: Nobody's got in touch with me at all, which I find quite amazing cos obviously that girl needs all the help she can get.Ch 9 2005


Sydney Morning Herald, “Weighing the evidence,” 5 March 2005 “Federal police say ‘it is a recognised criminal activity’ for drug dealers to use innocent travellers as unsuspecting ‘mules’. They have arrested baggage handlers at Sydney Airport for the offence. Drugs are inserted in luggage at one airport and a photograph of the target bag and its tag are emailed to the destination airport, where baggage handlers recover the drugs before the passenger collects the bag.”

27 Feb 2006, Channel 9 “Sydney Airport baggage handlers helped smuggle 10 kilograms of South American cocaine into Australia in the luggage of an unwitting traveller, a court has been told.

The allegations were raised as a committal hearing began in Sydney's Central Local Court on Monday for 11 men accused of involvement in a major cocaine supply ring.

Prosecutor David Staehli said one consignment of cocaine was imported from South America on October 8, 2004 "with the assistance of baggage handlers at (Sydney) airport".

He said a man flying from South America to Brisbane, via Sydney, had checked in his luggage for the flight but did not receive it on arrival.”

Innocent Australian passengers regularly used as unwitting drug mules . . .


Cutting satire from the ABC, now inexplicably removed from the web


On 4 April 2011, former Australian customs officer Allan Kessing told ABC Radio that if his report had not been suppressed . . .

“This tragedy would never have occurred.”


Darryl Passmore, The Courier Mail 20 March 2005 “A BRISBANE airport security senior source says accused drug-runner Schapelle Corby could not possibly have smuggled 4.1kg of marijuana through the airport. The well-placed source said there was no way Corby's bag could have passed through an array of checks without the drugs being detected. ‘The chances of it happening are zero. I would bet my life on it,’ the source said. ‘It would be laughable if it wasn’t so tragic.’”

Sydney Morning Herald 25 March 2005 “A Qantas baggage handler from Brisbane airport, Scott Speed, told the court the airline had a regulation forbidding anything other than a body board being placed in a boogie board bag and it was unlikely the marijuana was in the bag when it was checked in.

Asked how it was that flippers could be in the bag, Mr Speed said small items like these were often ignored but ‘95 per cent of staff’ would require passengers to remove anything substantial from a boogie board bag.”

4.2 kilos of slashed, stinking marijuana in an unlocked boogie board bag would not have made it through three Australian air terminals without detection. Quotes . . .“Secondly, in the post 9/11 World that we live in, and fly in, with its security cameras, x-ray machines, dogs sniffing for drugs and explosives, as well as random checks of baggage by Customs, the chances of Schapelle getting 4.2kgs of marijuana through two domestic and one international airport terminals in Australia was, essentially, zero. Let's not forget that the inner of the two plastic bags in which it was packed had been slashed, further aiding in the release of the pungent odour.” Roy Reeves, ships captain and long-time family friend

“Corby said the bag was ‘half opened’ and was giving off an overpowering smell. The customs officers confirmed her reaction.” The Melbourne Age, “Evidence lost and bungled could decide trial” 5 March 2005


Qantas baggage handlers had criminal records as long as your arm . . .

And here’s more on “Tom” by Clive Small, former Assistant Commissioner of the NSW Police, The Punch Magazine, June 2009 - “The retirement of some distributors and the arrest and jailing of others enabled an eastern suburbs professional surfer and dealer Shane Hatfield to progress up the drug chain. By the early 2000s he was dealing directly with Aunty. One of Hatfield’s distributors was a criminal in his mid twenties who has been given the pseudonym ‘Tom’ by law-enforcement authorities.

Tom has never held a job or had a legitimate income. He was a cannabis smoker at school and on leaving he quickly moved into the drug trade as a supplier. His progression from small-time dealer to large-scale trafficker was swift. He became part of a network aligned to an outlaw motorcycle gang whose drug operations were centred in Adelaide but spread to most states and territories of Australia.

As well as cannabis, Tom trafficked in ecstasy and cocaine. He carried a gun. Once he kidnapped another dealer who had ripped off his South Australian bikie drug suppliers and put him in a car for delivery to the Adelaide gang. Tom told a court that he never saw the drug dealer again but that he didn’t consider it a kidnapping because ‘He never asked to get out [of the boot].’

Arrested several times, Tom bribed police in the ‘tens of thousands of dollars’ to reduce or beat the charges and at other times bribed them for information they might have had about his activities or the activities of his associates. By 2000 Tom was selling cocaine supplied by Hatfield. Four years later he was a partner with Hatfield who had progressed to become one of Aunty’s major distributors.”

Sydney Morning Herald, “Too much baggage” 14 May 2005 - "He is identified only by the pseudonym Tom. In court documents revealed this week after police smashed the cocaine ring, he lurks as the character most likely to strike fear into the heart of a traveller.

He is not Hurley, notorious underworld figure, or another one of the accused - the high-flying former Macquarie Bank executive Ian Chalmers. Tom is someone rather less exotic but in a sense more sinister to the flying public: he was employed by Qantas at Sydney Airport. He may be there still, handling your bags."


When criminal QANTAS baggage handler “Tom” threatened to spill the beans on corrupt police, after he’d helped import 200 kilos of cocaine into Australia (using innocent passengers as drug mules), the New South Wales Crime Commission paid him $800,000 and allowed him to keep three quarters of a million dollars of his criminal earnings. The corrupt officers were never named.

“Tom is an indemnified witness who was paid $200,000 a year for four years. He was also allowed to keep around three quarters of a million dollars that he made ‘honestly’ through gambling.” Quote from Clive Small, former Assistant Commissioner to the New South Wales Police, June 2009, The Punch Magazine

“Tom,” a Qantas baggage handler with a history of trafficking in cannabis, was involved in major crime at Sydney Airport the exact hour Schapelle flew.


Macquarie Bank own Sydney Airport. On the 8th of October 2004, the day Schapelle flew from the Bank’s property, one of their directors, an Ian Robert Chalmers, oversaw the importation of over 2 million dollars worth of cocaine into Australia, with the help of corrupt baggage handlers using ordinary airline passengers as unwitting drug mules. This was also the day every frame of CCTV and X-ray imagery that Schapelle begged for vanished into thin air, without explanation. She was adamant this evidence would prove there were no drugs in her bag before check-in. Between June and December 2004, Chalmers smuggled over $65 million worth of drugs into the country with the help of criminal airline workers.

Nicholas Moore, CEO of Macquarie Bank, refuses to explain the complete destruction of the airport CCTV on the day a director of his bank smuggled millions of dollars worth of drugs through the Bank’s real estate.

Exposing the little known Macquarie Bank

connection.


MARK COLVIN: Police in New South Wales have presented evidence to a Sydney court of what they say is a massive cocaine smuggling syndicate.

They say it organised the importation of hundreds of kilos of cocaine with the help of corrupt baggage handlers at Sydney Airport.

The evidence is the result of a five month investigation in which 13 people have been charged with drug trafficking and money laundering.

Edmond Roy reports on what police say about the workings of the alleged drug ring.

EDMOND ROY: So far 13 people have been charged over a conspiracy to import between 20 and 30 kilos of cocaine into Australia from South America. In their submission to the Central Local Court this afternoon the Australian Federal Police, the New South Wales Crime Commission and the New South Wales Police drew a picture of a five month long investigation and what it uncovered.

According to the police, the investigation began in December of 2004 when one of the alleged members of the drug syndicate decided to roll over and become an informant.

The informant, code named RI-719, worked with police for the next five months, resulting in the arrest and charging of 13 suspects so far.

According to the statement of facts tendered in court, the syndicate was headed by Leslie Mara, Michael Hurley and Shayne Hatfield, of whom only Shayne Haftield is currently in custody. The other two are still at large.

Police allege that during their investigation they discovered that between June 2004 and December 2004 the syndicate had supplied nearly 200 kilograms of cocaine to various people in Sydney.

ABC Australia 11 May 2005, “Court hears evidence of cocaine smuggling ring.”

Criminal baggage handlers at Sydney Airport imported 200 kilos of cocaine into Australia 2004, using innocent passengers as drug mules. None of them were ever sentenced.

The Australian 12 May 2005

On the SAME day Schapelle flew, to quote The Daily Telegraph of 28 February 2006 “An Australian tourist became an unwitting drug mule with 10kg of cocaine concealed in his luggage without his knowledge” - and even though this involved the exact same baggage handling crew dealing with her bags, the Australian Federal Police kept this information under wraps during Schapelle’s trial, and even lied about it, quote . . .

The Federal Police's National Manager Mike Phelan has also told the Corby lawyers the AFP believes, "it is extremely rare to encounter a genuine ‘unsuspecting mule'". Channel 9, “Sunday” 2005


Criminal Qantas baggage handler Norman Niass would have been safer in prison . . .

Inner West Courier, 15 March 2011 “Shooting motive unclear” “Police are to establish a motive for the shooting of three people in a violent home invasion in Petersham last week” - “Media reports have identified baggage handler Norman Niass, who police once linked to an alleged drug syndicate, but had the charges against him dropped, as one of the victims”

10 May 2005, The Melbourne Age - “Another man, 55-year-old Norman Niass of Petersham, was also refused bail by a Sydney court today.

Police prosecutor Todd Pickering told Newtown Local Court authorities found $5000 as well as 48 grams of cocaine and 116 grams of methamphetamine in raids on Niass' home yesterday.

A number of unauthorised firearms also were recovered, Sergeant Pickering said.

Niass faces two charges each of possessing and importing a prohibited drug, a goods in custody charge and various firearms charges.

Defence lawyer Greg Scragg said Niass would "vigorously contest" all the charges.

Mr Scragg argued Niass' extremely poor health meant it would be "inhumane" to keep him in custody.

He suffered from acute asthma, degenerative sciatica and bleeding from his bowel, Mr Scrag said.

Niass was reliant on a ventolin puffer and appeared to be in pain throughout today's court proceedings.

But magistrate Suzanne Seagrave found the objective seriousness of the charges and Niass' lengthy prior record meant granting bail would be inappropriate.”

On the 10th May 2005, just 17 days before Schapelle was sentenced to 20 years of hell in Bali, Qantas baggage handler Norman Niass, a man with a lengthy criminal record, was remanded to jail. Bail was refused because of his torrid past. No media outlet in Australia let the cat out of the bag about his job with the nation’s airline at the time, and the Australian Federal Police did not tell Schapelle’s legal team. In March 2011, after the shooting story broke, Qantas was asked how the hell they ever employed him in the first place, given his forensic history. After saying his background was “Irrelevant,” the spokeswoman slammed the phone down and Qantas have refused to provide any explanation or clarification since, even though they were asked. Ditto the Australian Government.


Anthony Albanese, Australian Commonwealth Minister for Transport

Easton Barrington James, QANTAS baggage handler & criminalJune 2001 8 April 2006 8 April 2006

Qantas sacked Easton Barrington James around February 2006, after three and a half years on the payroll, and 16 months after Schapelle’s arrest. He was a baggage handler at Sydney Domestic Airport. He was jailed for 6 months on drug-related charges in 2000, just two years before Qantas employed him. Qantas also admitted that when they took him on, they knew of the extremely adverse findings re their worker, made public in “Operation Saigon,” when Easton was accused of supplying drugs to the police who killed a mentally ill man on Bondi Beach, in questionable circumstances. It’s frightening this wasn’t enough to deter them. Bizarrely, Qantas denied knowledge of his conviction, even though (according to press reports), it was well known to his co-workers, he was under formal police surveillance for 6 months in 2005/6, and this blot pre-dated mandatory security checks (both before and during his employment). Both Qantas and the Australian Minister for Transport, Anthony Albanese, have failed to answer questions about these gross and dangerous failures.


A QANTAS baggage handler was involved in smuggling drugs between domestic airports in February 2005, while Schapelle was awaiting trial in Bali. No-one told her legal team, and the information did not break in the press until June 2005, nearly a month after she was sentenced to 20 years.

. . . but despite helping to smuggle $60,000 worth of cocaine, he got just 12 months home detention . . .“Camilleri was originally charged with being an accessary after the fact of supplying cocaine, but last December had the charge reduced to hindering apprehension of a person committing a serious offence. Deputy Chief Magistrate Graeme Henson ordered the Double Bay man serve his 12-month sentence by way of home detention.” Nine News 4 April 2006


The Telegraph, 23 Jan 2007

“Life Of Crime over for Hurley” ‘Hurley, 61, succumbed to bone cancer in a Sydney hospital with his fiancee Genevieve Mullins and family at his bedside. He was due to face a District Court trial next month accused of heading one of Australia's biggest cocaine importations. Police alleged he and a co-accused paid corrupt baggage handlers to ensure 30kg got through Sydney airport from Argentina.”

The day Schapelle flew from Sydney Airport, the day every frame of CCTV and X-ray imagery she begged for “Vanished,” Alan Conwell was in charge of security for Qantas - a man with known links to the same criminals responsible importing over 2 million dollars worth of drugs that day, with the help of corrupt Qantas baggage handlers. Here’s what Lisa Davies of the Sydney Morning Herald had to say about Alan Conwell, on 2 June 2005 - “In evidence before the commission, Alan Conwell, the former officer with the Drug Enforcement Agency, was caught on phone taps trying to help a criminal associate of fugitive Michael Hurley avoid prosecution. An international search is under way for Hurley and his associate, Les Mara, over allegations they used Qantas baggage handlers to smuggle cocaine into Australia from South America.

The 1996 commission heard intercepted calls of a criminal, Norm Beves, organising a meeting with Mr Conwell after police had questioned him about the theft of perfume worth $8000 from a duty-free shop. It also heard evidence that Mr Conwell, then a detective on a salary of $30,000 a year with an $800-a-month mortgage and three children, was able to pay for $130,000 worth of renovations to his house - most of it in cash. He was also able to take his family on an overseas holiday and a cruise around the Pacific. Mr Conwell said he had been able to fund his lifestyle with his gambling winnings and a money borrowed from his father, Keith, who was also a policeman and also mentioned adversely at the commission.”

Michael Hurley


Operation MochaMark Standen, former Assistant Commissioner to the New South Wales Crime Commission, headed “Operation Mocha.” This included surveillance and investigation of the criminal Qantas baggage handlers employed by the airline (at Sydney Airport), on and around 8 October 2004, when Schapelle flew. But even though these corrupt workers imported 10 kilos of cocaine while police were covertly watching them, Mark Standen failed to preserve a single frame of CCTV relating to their activities, and none of them were ever convicted. Further, during this police investigation, inside information about the sting was leaked to the drug syndicate. No police officer was ever held to account for this breach, and the New South Wales Police Integrity Commission has point blank refused to look into it. They reckon it isn’t “Serious” enough for them to investigate, and they’re refusing to explain their reasoning for this strange decision.

One of these baggage handlers was later paid $800,000 (and allowed to keep three quarters of a million dollars of his criminal earnings), when he threatened to blow the whistle on corrupt police. He no longer lugs heavy weights for a living, and avoided prison. After his windfall, the lucky guy was not asked or required to name any bent coppers. Was Standen on this hidden list? Because shockingly, he’s now in jail, charged with attempting to import a large quantity of drugs into Australia (since then), but everybody and their dog is stonewalling requests to investigate Standen’s rather dubious role in “Operation Mocha.” However, given that the street value of the drugs imported by the Qantas bag handlers (in 2004), was over $65 million, and a director of the bank that owns the airport was part of that set up, some surmise that other high flyers are still involved, and thus reluctant to give up their very lucrative insiders. It’s a bit off-putting for new recruits to see former workers in the slammer.


QUOTE: “Customs has established a CCTV network at eight international airports. Customs has more than 1000 CCTV cameras and operates staffed control rooms at international airports. These cameras are located within Customs-controlled areas within the terminal, in the basement baggage make-up areas, in the public areas of the terminal and includes coverage of the airside tarmac areas and the public car parks. The Customs CCTV network at the airport provides full surveillance coverage at all times. Areas under surveillance are generally covered by more than one camera.”

Yet every frame of Australian airport CCTV that Schapelle begged for “Vanished” without explanation, despite the fact the Australian Federal Police should have expertly preserved the footage at once. The AFP are refusing to explain their failure, ditto the Australian Minister for Home Affairs and Julia Gillard.

Schapelle travelled through three Australian air terminals, Brisbane Domestic, Sydney Domestic and Sydney International on the same day a major police surveillance operation was under way. She also travelled on the same day a director of Macquarie Bank (owners of Sydney Airport, and generous supporter of both political parties), smuggled millions of dollars worth of drugs into the country with the help of corrupt Qantas baggage handlers, using innocent passengers as drug mules.

Vanished !!!Saturday, 9 July 2011

“And what about security checks at the international airport before the flight to Indonesia? The Sydney Airport Corporation says all bags presented by the airlines for Schapelle Corby's flight were screened, but any images are only held for 72 hours.” ABC Australia, 16 March 2005

Sydney Airport screeners “Missed” this & destroyed the image

The Sydney Airport X-ray fiasco The Australian Federal Police knew all about Schapelle’s high profile arrest in Bali well within 72 hours of her departure, yet they failed to secure the X-ray images, and they’re now refusing to answer questions about this bizarre lapse, ditto all levels of the Australian Government.

. . . or is that just the way it happens when airport-owning bank directors smuggle millions of dollars worth of drugs, in the luggage of unwitting passengers, with the help of criminal baggage handlers?


“The weights of the bags were not individually recorded but together they totalled 65 kilograms. The four bags were recorded in Corby's name, the four tags clipped onto her boarding pass cover. The weight of these bags when they were checked in and their weight on arrival in Bali was crucial evidence to test Corby's claim. In Bali, customs and police ignored it.” Sydney Morning Herald, “Weighing the Evidence,” 5 March 2005

Why were the Indonesian police so keen to convict an Australian woman, they trashed the most common-sense and vital piece of evidence? The weight of her luggage on arrival, to compare it to the Brisbane check-in weight?


“From the outset, the customs officers neglected four basic investigative procedures. They handled the outside drug bag with unprotected hands, taking no precautions against contaminating the only item of evidence. They handled the bottom of the internal bag when they took out the marijuana. First McComb and then Mercedes, when she got to the airport interview room, protested, demanding the bags be fingerprinted. They got the same reply. "Too late. Too many people have touched them." Mercedes said she replied: "Well, stop it right now." They laughed at her.

But Corby's lawyer, Lily Sri Rahaya Lubis, and her assistant, Vasu Rasiah, insist that most of the bag that actually contained the drugs was still clean because it had not been removed from the external bag. Only the bottom of the internal bag had been handled. The fingerprint evidence is basic and important. If Corby's prints are on either bag, she is condemned. But if they are not, it is strong evidence for the defence, although not conclusive. Corby told the lawyers to press hard. "They won't find my fingerprints," she said.

In late December, almost three months after Corby's arrest and after repeated requests to have the evidence fingerprinted, the lawyers confronted the director of the Bali narcotics bureau, Senior Commissioner Bambang Sugiarto, who was in charge of the investigation. Sugiarto had the bags brought to his office in Lubis's presence. "He confirmed the inside bag had not been removed. He said he would have it fingerprinted," Lubis said. But still it was not done.

She says the bag remained uncontaminated when it went to the prosecutor with other evidence on January 6. But that changed on February 3, when Corby made her second court appearance. In front of the three judges, the internal drug bag was taken out of the external bag and handled freely by a number of court officials, including customs officer Winata, prosecutor Wiswantanu and assistant judge I Gusti Lanang Dauh.

At the close of court that day, the frustrated defence lawyers made a formal application to have the bags fingerprinted. Chief Judge Linton Sirait said he would consider it. "There's still plenty of time," he said. Two court sittings later, the lawyers are still waiting for his decision. Even now, they insist, it is not too late.” Sydney Morning Herald, “Weighing the Evidence,” 5 March 20005

Why did the Indonesians refuse the most basic investigations, and then burn all the physical evidence?


AUSTRALIA’S MUTUAL ASSISTANCE TREATY WITH INDONESIA . . .. . . used for joint investigation of criminal matters, and trashed & ignored by the Australian Federal Police when it came to testing the physical evidence, letting the Indonesians burn it without investigation. Were our boys in blue frightened of what the forensics might reveal? They, and all levels of the Australian Government, are point blank refusing to provide an explanation for this extraordinary lapse. Though the Qantas baggage handlers who were using innocent passengers as drug mules on the day Schapelle flew (under the orders of a director of the bank that still owns the airport), had their prints on record, because of their long criminal histories . . .


When the Bali 9 were arrested, all the physical evidence was handled in a professional and appropriate manner - and their apprehension interrogation was filmed in the smallest detail, then handed over to the media. So why the hell did the Indonesians shrink from treating Schapelle’s arrest the same way? Was there too much to hide?

The Bali airport CCTV of Schapelle’s arrest went straight into the dirty laundry basket, and was never seen again.n


Verballed . . . The ONLY evidence used to convict Schapelle was the uncorroborated word of two Bali customs officers about her responses when she was arrested and questioned, even though they did not speak English. There was never ANY explanation re why this vital evidence was never taped or filmed. What were they hiding?

A formal warning against “Verballing” to guide Australian judges and magistrates:

“The police officers say that ( X -insert defendant’s name) made an admission of guilt to them; he denies that he did so. The alleged admission was not recorded by videotape or audio tape, nor was the defendant given any opportunity to read or sign any written record of it. There is no independent confirmation by any witness apart from the police officers as to what was said. It is the fact, of course, that sometimes people who make confessions repudiate them later; they regret having made the admission which points to their guilt, and seek to avoid the consequences of it by denying ever having made it. But in circumstances such as these, where it is said that an admission, which is not in any way recorded, was made while the defendant was in the custody of the police, you should treat it with great caution. A person in that position is at a very grave disadvantage; he can only deny what the police say, and there is no independent means available of establishing what happened. Bear in mind that it is easy for a police officer or indeed police officers to claim that a defendant has said something to indicate his guilt, and very difficult for the defendant (X) to refute such a claim.”

http://www.courts.qld.gov.au/Benchbook/SD-36-OutOfCourtConfessionalStatements.pdf


Schapelle was convicted on the ADDITIONAL charge of “Trafficking” (attracting a much higher penalty), without a shred of evidence . . . not even a “Motive,” given that marijuana sold for US30 cents a gram in Bali at that time, and $US31 a gram in Australia (according to United Nations data). The charge was bizarre.

Given 20 years in hell on trumped up charges . . .


Documents

The Qantas Cover Up