28-year-old gambling addict K.C. who was involved in a failed attempt to import 2.4 tons of cocaine worth around $100 million into Perth, Western Australia (WA) as part of a large-scale drug operation, has received a jail sentence of over 14 years.
WA Police Was Tipped Off
In January 2023, the Sydney-based player flew to Perth with the impression that he was going to be paid approximately $200,000 to store part of the drugs while waiting for additional instructions from people higher up in the Mexican drug cartel behind the attempted importation.
Two months before that, police authorities in WA had received a tip regarding the plan as soon as Australia’s Drug Enforcement Administration intercepted the cocaine on the South American coast.
WA police proceeded to substitute the drugs using plaster of Paris, a quick-setting gypsum plaster made of a fine white powder prior to the packages being dropped off the coast of Perth, waiting to be scooped up by the people involved in the drug syndicate.
The District Court was informed about the person’s involvement in collecting the five packages of what he believed was 200 kilograms of cocaine from the people that he met in a car park.
He then took the packages to his accommodation in Carlisle, a suburb in Perth, where police put him under arrest.
Two weeks before that, several men were arrested after they allegedly made multiple attempts to retrieve what they believed was cocaine off the Perth coast.
Police said that the rough conditions caused one of the boats to be washed up on a beach before it was eventually towed out to sea and sank.
Most of the arrested men have not yet been dealt with by the courts.
K.C., Remorseful for His Actions
The gambling addict’s lawyer explained that, despite his client having been entrusted by people higher up in the drug cartel to warehouse the large quantity of drugs, he only represented a very small component of the larger importation.
The lawyer added that his client had accumulated debts through his gambling and drug use habits, explaining that his involvement in the cocaine operation was to pay back the owned money while also making a profit for himself.
K.C.’s level of participation was described as “low” by his lawyer who further added that his client “took a risk and lost” and that he also acknowledges what is the price that he has to pay for his actions.
While Judge Lisa Tovey accepted K.C.’s remorse regarding his actions along with his previous guilty plea, she also acknowledged that he had committed the offense to obtain an important financial gain and that his role showed that people higher up in the criminal organization had put a high degree of trust in him.
Tovey further described the plan as a complex drug operation, explaining that, if the cocaine had successfully reached the community, it would have caused a lot of harm.
K.C. has been sentenced to serve 12 years and 6 months of a 14-and-a-half-year sentence prior to being given the possibility to be released.
He will first be eligible for parole in 2035.
Earlier in the week, an Irish woman who stole $66,595 for her gambling purposes was sentenced to three years in prison.
Last August, a former Wells Fargo advisor was sentenced to jail time for a gambling-driven fraud scheme.