Organised crime syndicate members sentenced to a combined 54 years’ jail over botched 500kg cocaine importation

Three members of a Melbourne-based criminal syndicate, with alleged links to Italian organised crime, were today (16 July, 2026) sentenced for conspiring to import over 500 kilograms of cocaine into Australia from Papua New Guinea.

The men were arrested in July 2020, after an investigation into a black flight by the Queensland Joint Organised Crime Taskforce (QJOCTF) – working closely with Victoria Police and the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC) – led to coordinated search warrants across Victoria, NSW, Queensland and PNG.

Operation Weathers resulted in five men in Australia and four men in PNG arrested after the black flight aircraft crashed while attempting to take-off from a remote airstrip at Papa Lea Lea, north of Port Moresby, PNG, on 26 July, 2020.

The cocaine onboard the flight, worth about $800 million at the time, never made it into the Australian community as it was located by RPNGC five days after the crash.

A Niddrie (Victoria) man, now aged 39, was sentenced to 22 years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of 13 years.