STATE OF TASMANIA v IFEANYI SAMUEL ANI 20 JUNE 2024
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
Ifeanyi Ani, you plead guilty to conspiracy, attempting to traffic in a controlled substance and to trafficking in a controlled substance. Early in 2023 you and a man you worked with entered into an agreement to import illicit drugs into Tasmania from overseas. As I will further explain, the scheme was suggested by a person you knew in Hong Kong who asked that, in return for money, you would provide addresses in Tasmania to which the drugs could be sent. You arranged for some packages to be sent to your workmate and other packages to a female associate. Between February and May 2023 five packages were intercepted by Australian Border Force in New Zealand, Sydney and Belgium. One of those was addressed to the female. In total those intercepted packages contained just over 2 kilograms of methylamphetamine with a value, if successfully delivered, between about $670,000 if sold by the ounce and almost $2.1m if sold by the point.
On 23 August 2023 another package was intercepted, this time by Tasmania police. The parcel was addressed to your associate and had come from the Philippines. Examination of it revealed that it contained just over 500 grams of heroin in cryovac packages concealed inside a small cardboard carton also containing ornaments. Your associate picked up the parcel from the post office on 28 August 2023. The pickup was monitored by the police and he was arrested shortly afterwards. Depending on the quantities in which it was sold the heroin was worth between $95,000 and $506,000. You were arrested the following day. On 5 September 2023, when you were already in custody, another box of ornaments arrived, this time addressed to the female associate. By this time the police knew of the address and were able to seize it at its destination. The box contained just under 500 grams of heroin of similar value to the earlier delivery.
The charges brought against you are to be considered in the following way. The conspiracy covers all of the interceptions except for the two which were destined for the female, one on 26 May 2023 which is attempted trafficking, and the other on 5 September which was trafficking because it was actually imported to Tasmania but then intercepted.
You are aged 39. Your candid admissions and relatively early plea of guilty are in your favour. You were born and educated in Nigeria. You have one daughter there. You married an Australian in that country but relocated to Tasmania with her in late 2022 on a marriage visa. You have been industrious during your life having held stable employment in Africa and then following your arrival in Tasmania. On the information given to me you have no prior convictions. I am informed that since being in custody you have been a model prisoner.
You are not a user of drugs. However your visa and relocation expenses put you under financial stress. Your friend in Hong Kong suggested a way to make money. You had full knowledge that the proposed deliveries to the addresses you provided contained illicit drugs although you did not know which drugs or in what quantity. In the event of a successful delivery you were then to transport the drugs to others. You told the police that your intention was to take the drugs you received to Melbourne. In return, you were to be paid $10,000 for each parcel once it arrived. In the case of the deliveries to your male associate, you were to share the money with him equally. Because none of the deliveries were made, you were paid nothing. However you must have been monitoring the deliveries because you admitted following your arrest that you knew that the packages did not make it through. Some of the things you said to the police suggest that you did receive some payments, and that there may have been other deliveries, but the State does not press those assertions. I am asked to sentence you on the basis that your criminal conduct is confined to only the specific parcels to which I have referred.
There is a prospect that your conviction and imprisonment for this crime will lead to revocation of your visa, which also may affect a possible grant of parole. I infer that it may also affect your ability to be with your wife if she remains in this country. However my duty is to impose the appropriate sentence for the crimes you have committed.
The evils of trafficking in drugs have been stated many times. The use of and trade in illicit drugs result in a great deal of harm to individuals and the community and generate much other criminal activity, especially serious crimes of violence and dishonesty. Those who set out to make money from the trade should expect to go to prison for long periods. Courts have a duty to punish and condemn drug traffickers and protect the community by imposing sentences which make clear to offenders and others the potential consequences of apprehension in the hope that others may be deterred from acting in a similar way.
Even though none of the deliveries succeeded and you did not receive payment, the very large quantity and potential value of the drugs involved in these crimes make it a serious case. The deliveries were intercepted only by the good work of the law enforcement authorities. Your plan ceased only because you were apprehended. Your participation was not motivated by addiction, but was purely financial. You made a considered and deliberate decision to, for money, become involved in the criminal importation of illicit drugs from overseas, realising the potential consequences if you were caught. Your participation extended over a number of months. Your role was to receive the drugs and then deliver them to others in return for a fixed payment, rather than a share of the proceeds. You had, on the information I have been given, a relatively subordinate role in the trafficking hierarchy, but I am to focus on the nature and level of your involvement. Without persons willing to act in the role you assumed, the chain of distribution is made more difficult. I do not see that your lack of knowledge about the type and quantity of drugs means that you should be treated any more leniently. Knowing participants should not be permitted to distance themselves from the trafficking by remaining ignorant of the details. It would have been obvious to anyone that the quantity of drugs could have been very large, as it was. You acted on an intention to play an important role in the supply chain which, if it had succeeded, would have resulted in a large commercial quantity of illicit drugs making their way into the community. I do not consider it appropriate to suspend any part of the sentence but will allow the earliest eligibility for parole.
You are convicted on the indictment. Pursuant to the Misuse of Drugs Act, s 36B, I assess the reasonable expense of and attending the analysis and examination of the controlled substances as $788.00 and award that sum against you as part of the costs of the prosecutor. You have 28 days to pay that sum. I impose one sentence. You are sentenced to imprisonment for four years from 29 August 2023, the date you were taken into custody. I order that you not be eligible for parole until you have served half of that term.