It was an elaborate drug plot that took two years to plan, but mere seconds to unravel.
Loaded up with 548 kilograms of cocaine — with a street value upwards of $80 million — the Cessna light plane took off from north of Papua New Guinea’s capital Port Moresby for Mareeba in Queensland.
The aircraft barely made it past the runway, crashing into trees.
The pilot, David Cutmore, was sentenced to 18 years in a PNG jail over the failed 2020 operation.
An aerial shot of the crashed plane at the end of the makeshift runway, outside Papua New Guinea’s capital Port Moresby. (Supplied: Facebook)
Today, two masterminds behind the plan and another involved were sentenced in Victoria’s County Court.
“Had you succeeded you would have been rich beyond measure,” Judge John Kelly told the men.
“You were undone by your greed.”
Dozens of people turned up to support the men in court, so much so that the case needed to be shifted to a larger courtroom. Before the hearing, the crowd chatted warmly like old friends. By the end, some wept loudly and needed to be consoled.
The ringleader, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was jailed for 22 years with a minimum of 13 years for conspiring to import a commercial quantity of cocaine.
Judge Kelly said the man had large gambling debts and was motivated by his “obligations to shadowy figures”.
“You say you fell in with undesirables, including your co-offenders. Accumulated debts that no honest man could pay, and felt constrained to participate in this massive conspiracy to clear your slate,” he said.
The man’s second-in-command, Aiden Khoder, was handed a 21-year sentence with a 12-year non-parole period.
Khoder, a repeat drug trafficker, was described as “ambitious and greedy” by the judge.
George Machem, who was sentenced to seven years jail with a minimum of four on a lesser drug charge, completed “routine legwork” for the syndicate, the judge said.
The court heard the drug plot had been in the works for almost two years, and involved modification of the light plane so that it could carry the huge cocaine haul.
The drugs involved in the failed 2020 plot were incinerated at a secure facility in Queensland in 2024. (Supplied: AFP)
In July 2020, it was flown from Mareeba to PNG with flat-screen televisions, Sony Playstations and jerry cans onboard. Once it reached the destination, the items were swapped out for bags of cocaine.
When the plane crashed shortly after take-off on the return leg, the drugs were stashed in nearby mangroves. It was soon discovered by authorities and the men were arrested.
The case took years to move through the courts, with the trio agreeing to plead guilty last year.
The judge said the men’s families would also suffer while they languished in jail, including their young children. The court heard one missed his father so badly that he clutched one of his shirts each night in bed.
Judge Kelly said the offenders had all expressed regret for their actions.
“The scope of your planned importation was colossal,” he said.
“You would have become absurdly wealthy men. You were clear-eyed about your futures if you were caught. Now you are sorry.”
The drugs were incinerated by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in 2024.
The AFP said a fourth member of the syndicate was jailed for four-and-a-half years in March. Another man was found not guilty at a trial in Queensland in 2023.
Four men in PNG were also jailed, police said.
In a statement, AFP Detective Superintendent Adrian Telfer said the syndicate had been tracked “from a very early stage of this planned importation”.
“This importation was a clear demonstration of the lengths criminal groups will go to in order to profit at the expense of our community,” he said.
“It also demonstrates the danger of black flight ventures, and we were lucky no-one was killed or seriously injured in the plane crash.”