Standen trial: Australians imbeciles Dutch drug gang says

Geesche Jacobsen March 25, 2011

The Australian participants in an alleged conspiracy to import pseudoephedrine to Australia were regarded as "a bunch of imbeciles" by a Dutch drug syndicate.

The convicted British drug trafficker James Henry Kinch

The gang was allegedly organising a test shipment of rice from Pakistan - which arrived in Sydney on October 4, 2007 - ahead of another shipment that was allegedly intended to contain the real precursor.

Former Crime Commission investigator Mark Standen is accused of conspiring with informer James Kinch and businessman Bill Jalalaty to import the pseudoephedrine and to pervert the course of justice.

Mr Standen is also accused of taking part in the supply of 300 kilograms of the substance.

The Supreme Court heard yesterday that Mr Jalalaty had negotiated with the wrong people about the rice shipment while those he was meant to talk to complained about trouble contacting him.

The container remained on the wharf in Sydney amid confusion about the whereabouts of a payment Mr Jalalaty had made for the shipment and about the necessary documents needed to clear it.

Even after being told to contact only one man known as Rashid - who the court heard was actually a member of the Dutch syndicate - and to pay a particular account, Mr Jalalaty is repeatedly heard in telephone calls to his original contact, Raza.

This man attempts to persuade Mr Jalalaty to only deal with him, and pay only him.

In an email that Mr Kinch allegedly sent to Mr Jalalaty, he complains that "it seems that it's one stupid thing after another" and tells him their contacts were "ready to walk away".

"Do (asap) as he asks! Pay what he asks, fast, and we can sort everything out after."

Meanwhile, Mr Jalalaty repeatedly discusses his plans to import cheese, milk powder and pizza sauce.

The jury also heard Mr Standen being asked by his brother about Mr Jalalaty's involvement in a planned catering contract with James Packer's Macau casino.

In other emails tendered in court yesterday, Mr Standen allegedly discussed rumours with Mr Kinch about "some big players" having friends "here" or in the federal police.

Mr Standen also allegedly tells Mr Kinch that the stories, which people "shouldn't" be hearing, related to "Poms and others who live in Spain and Portugal".

The court heard that Mr Kinch, an Englishman, used to live in Portugal.

Such stories had been repeated several times and people had "stopped business because they had heard things", Mr Standen allegedly wrote.

In reply, Mr Kinch allegedly assured Mr Standen he had not spoken to anyone and did not move "in them circles".

"Why they bring my name into conversations I do not know," he allegedly wrote in another draft email in a shared hotmail account.

Ice after the rice deal plot, court told

On tape: Mark Standen at the Downing Central Court. Picture: Frank Violi Source: The Daily Telegraph

Lisa Davies From: The Daily Telegraph March 23, 2011 12:00AM

WITH a hot chocolate each and Mark Standen's bugged mobile phone on the table between them, the former top investigator and his businessman mate discuss a crucial -- and imminent -- arrival.

A 17-tonne shipment of rice is en route to Sydney but the pair talk about more than just that, the Supreme Court was told yesterday.

The Crown alleged Standen and foodstuffs businessman Bakhos "Bill" Jalalaty are trouble-shooting the arrival of the rice as it is a "dry run" for a second shipment, one that will contain up to 300kg of pseudo-

ephedrine -- a precursor used to make the drugs speed and ice.

Standen, the Supreme Court jury has heard, was in law enforcement for 30 years.

Standen has denied any role in the drug importation plot, his lawyer telling the court last week he believed the shipments were only ever to contain rice.

In conversations played to the jury yesterday, Shortly after the pair meet on Saturday morning September 15, Jalalaty raises the first problem -- the invoice for the rice is from a company called Elegant Hosiery.

"I'm not sure but . . . how long would that, how long would it take for someone to say what the f. . ., what's Elegant Hosiery doing selling rice?" he asks Standen.

"All sorts of companies do all sorts of stuff," Standen replied.

Jalalaty said there was talk of expansion into Panama and a member of the overseas syndicate discussed going there to import "jam".

Standen warns him to be careful, saying Customs officers look out for certain things when deciding whether to inspect shipping containers. "They're totally different . . . I mean the Customs guys, if that were from Panama they'd be going 'Hmmm, get some rice from Pakistan' . . . you know, it's apples and oranges," he said.

He says "quarantine [officers] are panicking at the moment after the horse flu" and Customs will look for "wrong described goods, um, under-valued goods, um prohibited goods of any sort including drugs like anything prohibited . . . but they . . . are unlikely to open it, they might just X-ray [it]."

He warns Jalalaty not to seek too much information: "I think it's better not to know -- I think I'd want to know nothing."

The pair use covert email accounts to communicate with overseas syndicate members and Standen warns Jalalaty: "If anything ever went wrong your computer ought to go for a swim." The case continues.

Top cop Mark Standen wanted to "get the slate clean", jury hears

Lisa Davies From: The Daily Telegraph March 23, 2011 12:00AM

Former assistant director of the NSW Crime Commission Mark Standen

FORMER top investigator Mark Standen told an alleged accomplice he couldn't wait to "get the slate clean", bemoaning his wife's mental illness and his rising debts as the cause of much financial pressure, a jury has heard.

In an intercepted conversation with co-accused Bakos "Bill" Jalalaty played to the jury, the pair allegedly discuss the details of a shipment of rice and other foodstuffs.

The Crown alleges the men were in actual fact conspiring to import 300kg of the precursor drug pseudoephedrine, used to make ice or speed.

Standen is heard discussing how he helped out his younger brother when he separated from his wife, and now his family is costing him a lot of money as he struggles with financial commitments.

"I’ve got a nutty wife who used to spend all the money I’d left for bills, for ages I paid bills twice – I’d say look, OK, look the phone bill’s six hundred bucks, the electricity bill you know four hundred, there’s the money to pay those ... OK where’s the money buying alcohol, this, that, and the other spending the money buying things for family – she went and bought a microwave oven for $900, a $900 microwave … we've already got a bloody $300 one that doesn't get used,” he said in the conversation recorded by a listening device in September 2007.

"Psychotic medication is expensive you know ... I’ve had had her to counsellors and psychiatrist, I’ve had her to all types."

However, he admits he let their private insurance lapse, and he wasn’t covered.

"I just want $200 thousand … (I’d be) extremely pleased," he said.

"If I have a hundred in cash I wouldn’t have to panic for another, say, another year or so before worrying about doing anything, yeah."

Standen has pleaded not guilty in the Supreme court to three charges - conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of pseudoephedrine, knowingly take part in the supply of 300kg of that drug, and perverting the course of justice.

Top cop Mark Standen wanted to "get the slate clean", jury hears

Lisa Davies From: The Daily Telegraph March 23, 2011 12:00AM

FORMER top investigator Mark Standen told an alleged accomplice he couldn’t wait to "get the slate clean", bemoaning his wife’s mental illness and his rising debts as the cause of much financial pressure, a jury has heard.

Wife (right) dumps 'drug' cop Mark Standen

In an intercepted conversation with co-accused Bakos "Bill" Jalalaty played to the jury, the pair allegedly discuss the details of a shipment of rice and other foodstuffs.

The Crown alleges the men were in actual fact conspiring to import 300kg of the precursor drug pseudoephedrine, used to make ice or speed.

Standen is heard discussing how he helped out his younger brother when he separated from his wife, and now his family is costing him a lot of money as he struggles with financial commitments.

"I’ve got a nutty wife who used to spend all the money I’d left for bills, for ages I paid bills twice – I’d say look, OK, look the phone bill’s six hundred bucks, the electricity bill you know four hundred, there’s the money to pay those ... OK where’s the money buying alcohol, this, that, and the other spending the money buying things for family – she went and bought a microwave oven for $900, a $900 microwave … we've already got a bloody $300 one that doesn't get used,” he said in the conversation recorded by a listening device in September 2007.

"Psychotic medication is expensive you know ... I’ve had had her to counsellors and psychiatrist, I’ve had her to all types."

However, he admits he let their private insurance lapse, and he wasn’t covered.

"I just want $200 thousand … (I’d be) extremely pleased," he said.

"If I have a hundred in cash I wouldn’t have to panic for another, say, another year or so before worrying about doing anything, yeah."

Standen has pleaded not guilty in the Supreme court to three charges - conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of pseudoephedrine, knowingly take part in the supply of 300kg of that drug, and perverting the course of justice.

Court hears former top cop Mark Standen 'used inside knowledge' to tip off accomplice

By LISA DAVIES From: The Daily Telegraph March 22, 2011 2:36PM

A FORMER top cop allegedly used his inside knowledge to tell an accomplice what might alert customs officers to suspicious goods on Sydney's docks.

The trial of former NSW Crime Commission officer Mark Standen has also heard him say he just wanted to "get the slate clean", in reference to his personal financial debts.

The jury has today been played a lengthy conversation between Standen and one alleged accomplice, foodstuffs businessman Bakhos "Bill" Jalalaty, recorded by a listening device secretly placed in the former cop’s mobile telephone.

The conversation on September 15 2007 records Standen telling Jalalaty that customs would look for "wrongly described goods, undervalued goods” and that depending on the country from where the products came it was like comparing "apples and oranges".

He also allegedly told Jalalaty that there were currently some "big projects on tobacco".

Jalalaty, a business owner, told him: "Listen it’s worth the risk … first container will be anything, I think it’s just rice."

Standen, 54, has pleaded not guilty to conspiring with James Kinch and Jalalaty between early 2006 and June 2008 to import pseudoephedrine, used to make the drugs speed and ice.

The former NSW Crime Commission assistant director of investigations also denied taking part in the supply of 300kg of the substance and conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

The Crown alleged the plot involved Standen's friend Jalalaty using his food business to import the pseudoephedrine in a consignment of rice from Pakistan.

The case before Justice Bruce James continues.

Secret tapes reveal former investigator hoped for film work with Crowe

Source: Geesche Jacobsen March 22, 2011

THE former assistant director of the NSW Crime Commission Mark Standen was hoping to become a consultant on a Russell Crowe film in which the Hollywood actor played a retired FBI director, a jury has heard.

The details were contained in a conversation Mr Standen had with Bakhos Jalalaty, his alleged co-conspirator in a planned importation of a drug precursor. In the conversation, recorded secretly with a device planted by police in the businessman's car, Mr Jalalaty was also heard discussing plans to import jam, sell beer and fish, market powdered milk and ''sacred water'' from Aboriginal lands.

It was one of a series of intercepted conversations and emails presented to the jury in Mr Standen's trial on conspiracy and drug charges yesterday.

Mr Standen told Mr Jalalaty he had received a phone message from Russell Crowe saying the lawyer Chris Murphy had suggested he contact Mr Standen. He met the Hollywood actor at a Walsh Bay cafe and Mr Standen believed they had got on well, but he was disappointed not to be offered a consultant's job.

The court also saw a series of emails which were allegedly stored as drafts on Hotmail accounts used by Mr Jalalaty and a third alleged co-conspirator, the drug dealer James Kinch, apparently discussing finances.

The Crown alleges Mr Kinch sent an email with the subject ''pull your finger out'' asking why Mr Jalalaty was having ''such difficulties'' and had only ''200 available''.

''I was under the impression that you where using it to buy stock which would be sold at a profit,'' his email says. On the same day Mr Jalalaty allegedly replied via a new draft email: ''Maurice has already expressed your disappointment. We are working closely now to ensure everything is done to your liking.''

The court has previously heard ''Maurice'' is a nickname used by Mr Standen in the email exchanges.

For the first time the court was also shown surveillance footage capturing Mr Standen and Mr Jalalaty meeting in August 2007, on a bench on Market Street, near the Shelbourne Hotel in Sydney. The court heard no recording was available from the meeting because no listening device had been placed in Mr Standen's phone at that stage.

The jury was also shown a fax received by Mr Jalalaty on September 5, 2007, from a company called Elegant Hoisery in Lahore. The fax discussed the proposed first shipment of 17,000 kilograms of basmati rice, costing $US21,275, and difficulties after changes to export procedures in Pakistan.

The shipment was due to arrive in Sydney within 15 days, the fax advised, by which time proposed second and third shipments would have been dispatched.