Saturday, June 7, 2008

Sting 'caught accused Standen'

Mark Standen Pic: Craig Greenhill
Report has been prepared by Dr Robert N Moles

On 7 June 2008 Janet Fyfe-Yeomans of the Daily Telegraph reported “Sting 'caught accused Standen'” She said accused corrupt cop Mark Standen and his friend Bill Jalalaty were the victims of an international sting which fleeced them of more than $1 million which they had allegedly been given to set up the Australian end of a drug network. The bizarre money trail involved a psychic and clairvoyant, a convicted conman, a Caribbean bank account and a 220kg Texan debt collector who wears gloves with steel knuckles when he's "at work." And the man who has been accused of stealing the money, Bruce Way, yesterday told The Daily Telegraph that he was a victim, too.

Despite making his living as a psychic, Mr Way said he never saw it coming. "We were taken by ignorance and greed," he said. "We were all scammed. Absolutely." Standen, an assistant director of the NSW Crime Commission, and Jalalaty, a Blacktown food importer, were allegedly given money by a Dutch drug syndicate in 2006. Police allege the payment was to create a legitimate import history behind which pseudoephedrine could be smuggled into the country hidden in rice shipments. Jalalaty allegedly decided to invest some of it first.

Michael Hurley
Enter Robert Orehek, an associate of Jalalaty's who introduced him to another associate, Mr Way. Mr Way, whose company is called Intuitive Brilliance, said yesterday he had made money through US commodities broker Dominic Guardino. Mr Guardino had recommended a businessman living in the Bahamas who wanted investors to put money into his $500 million pool to deal in unsecured bank debts, a high risk investment "promising" returns of 15 per cent per month. Mr Way said Jalalaty invested around $625,000 in the deal and was promised $1.7 million back. But the money disappeared along with the Caribbean businessman, who none of them had met.

It is alleged Standen then told Jalalaty about debt collector Frank Wheeler. Mr Wheeler has a two-sided business card. The front lists his specialties as "Private Investigation; Finance; Investment; Recovery of Money's". The back of the card offers 10 per cent discounts for funerals and medical emergencies. "It's much better to have me on your side than against you," Mr Wheeler said yesterday. "Mark Standen called me personally on my phone and said he had this guy with some problems."
Mr Wheeler said he visited Mr Way and met Standen inside the Crime Commission's Kent Street offices. Mr Way said he thought he was going to be charged by Standen and had no idea where he fitted into the tale until Monday when Standen and Jalalaty were arrested and charged with conspiracy to import and supply drugs. Australian Federal Police telephone taps allegedly recorded Standen and Jalalaty discussing Mr Way and Mr Wheeler's services. Mr Way said he had been unable to pay any money back because he had lost everything himself in the scam. Orehek was last year jailed for 18 months for fleecing members of the Hillsong Church of $4.6 million and flouting corporations law. Both Mr Way and Mr Wheeler said they had no idea the money was allegedly connected to drugs.

Lisa Davies - PIC told: investigate officer.

She said on his deathbed, crime boss Michael Hurley broke a life-long code and allegedly named Mark Standen as a corrupt policeman. In an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph, a close Hurley confidant has detailed how it was possible he sparked investigations into the senior investigator with the NSW Crime Commission. The intermediary, who asked not to be named, has spoken of Hurley's long-running battle with Standen. Before he died, Hurley made a series of allegations to Police Integrity Commission investigators, begging them to look into Standen's activities. "If all you do is sit off him for six months, you'll find something," he allegedly told them. "At the very least, just tap his phones."

Mick Keelty Photo: Joh Woudsra
Hurley, 61, succumbed to cancer in January 2007, after being arrested a year earlier following months on the run. A joint operation by NSW and federal police codenamed Mocha had been hunting Hurley since May 2005, when they made a string of arrests over a conspiracy to import 30kg of cocaine using baggage handlers at Sydney airport. They alleged Hurley, along with surfer Shayne Hatfield and former first grade rugby league player Les Mara, had masterminded the importation, and had already carried out one successful importation the year before. But Hurley and Mara disappeared as police swooped, sparking claims they had been tipped off by someone in the NSW Police Force. Over the past 10 years Standen had made three separate complaints of corruption or misconduct against long-serving federal police officer Gerry Fletcher. The last, made at a private meeting with federal police boss Mick Keelty in 2005, saw Standen accuse Mr Fletcher of tipping off Hurley that he was a target of the AFP Crime Commission investigation. Fletcher was sacked but has since been reinstated and all the allegations made by Standen dismissed.


Ben Archbold
When contacted by this newspaper, Hurley's solicitor Ben Archbold said he was aware his client had met with the PIC, but declined to comment on the specific allegations. However, Mr Archbold said he was aware Hurley held strong views about Standen. "If the substance of Hurley's allegations are true, then it's hardly surprising that Mr Standen finds himself in his current predicament," Mr Archbold said. The Daily Telegraph can reveal two PIC officers visited Hurley's hospital bedside at Long Bay Jail at midnight in early 2006, shortly after his arrest, where he was receiving treatment for his spreading cancer. The investigators promised him bail on the conspiracy to import charges and said he could be home with his family in 24 hours. Hurley told them: "I've got nothing to say to you right now."

But after discussing the issue, he said something had to be done and sent his close friend to speak with them on his behalf. In a covert meeting at a Sydney coffee shop, a series of claims were made to the PIC including reference to a incident in which he alleged Standen had confronted Hurley outside the Hilton hotel. Hurley was also said to be disgusted that Standen and the Crime Commission had allowed an Operation Mocha informant, a man code-named Tom, to travel on an all-expenses paid trip overseas as an apparent reward for his information.

Police concerned about Standen decades ago

Source: BY NOEL TOWELL

07 Jun, 2008 09:30 AM

Senior Australian Federal Police officers were aware of corruption allegations against Mark Standen dating back to the 1980s, former officers say.

They allege Standen an assistant director of the NSW Crime Commission who has been charged with conspiring with an international syndicate to import $120million of drugs into Australia was named by witnesses at a 1996 inquiry into corruption in the force. The inquiry, chaired by Sydney barrister Ian Harrison was set up to investigate allegations of corruption among mostly Sydney-based AFP officers,
The report of the inquiry has never been made public, but several officers were dismissed in its wake and it is also alleged that Standen, along with several others suspected of corruption, was allowed to leave the AFP quietly by taking voluntary redundancy around the time of the probe.

An AFP spokesman declined to comment on the claims made by the former officers yesterday.
Standen was arrested on Monday at his Sydney desk and charged, along with another Australian man, with conspiring with a Dutch-based gang to smuggle 600kg of pseudo-ephedrine, the raw material of the drug ''ice'', into Australia.

It has also been revealed that in 1982, the Stewart Royal Commission into drug trafficking heard that then Federal Narcotics Bureau agents Standen and Stephen Innsley had both been charged after being caught flushing drugs down a toilet.

AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty said he was not aware of the charges.

''That's well before my time in this position and I've got to say that I was totally unaware of that case,'' Mr Keelty told radio yesterday.

Meanwhile, former NSW detective and anti-corruption campaigner Michael Kennedy said Standen who was well known to have a gambling addiction was closely associated with a group of corrupt members of the Joint Drugs Taskforce in the 1980s. The group had all come through the ranks of the disgraced Federal Narcotics Bureau in the 1970s, said Dr Kennedy, who gave evidence to the Wood Royal Commission into police corruption in NSW and the Harrison inquiry which sat for six months in 1996 and 1997.

Dr Kennedy accused members of Standen's Sydney drugs unit, then commanded by Clifford Samuel Foster who later killed himself while subject to corruption allegations, of stealing money from suspects and recycling drugs seized in raids.

''The problem we had was with a group of people who had come from the Narcotics Bureau when it was disbanded,'' Dr Kennedy said.

''Harrison could have been under no illusion, and neither could anyone else, who the people were that there was a problem with.''

The former head of operations for the AFP's internal investigations group, Ray Cooper, who was based in Canberra, said he raised the alarm about Standen in the late 1980s after an encounter with Standen who was then with the Sydney branch of the AFP's internal affairs unit.

''We were investigating corrupt cops in Sydney and he [Standen] was in internal affairs there and the place used to leak like a sieve,'' Mr Cooper said. ''We were investigating a bloke who was later convicted of corruption and this bloke [Standen] turned up on his day off and he was very interested in what was going on.

''I just sent him away and I suspected that he wasn't kosher at that stage and I passed a message on to his boss at internal affairs that they should watch him, put an intelligence report on him, but I don't know what happened after that.''

Mr Cooper, who retired from the AFP in 1995 said the Sydney AFP office was rife with corruption at the time and many of Standen's clique became caught up in graft inquiries.

Mark Standen's fall a long time coming

MARK Standen was a Janus-faced top cop.

June 07, 2008 12:00AM

INSIDE STORY: Michael McKenna and Natalie O'Brien


Like the Roman god, a mythological gatekeeper, Standen had two personas: one was the competitive, effective and highly decorated investigator; the other was the shadowy alter-ego of an addicted gambler, who managed to evade paying the debts for his sometimes questionable professional methods and friends.

The Monday arrest of the assistant director of the secretive NSW Crime Commission over an alleged $120 million drug importation plot sent shockwaves, at least publicly, through the ranks of the law and order community. But for many investigators, Standen's fall from grace was a long time coming and raises serious questions about who is policing the police.

In the days since Standen's arrest by AFP officers at his Sydney desk, there has been a steady flow of revelations of how the 33-year veteran of five law enforcement agencies has been adversely named in royal commissions, faced accusations of destroying evidence and managed to overcome a ban on his entry into the AFP several decades ago.

Even NSW Crime Commission head Philip Bradley surprised reporters this week by confirming he had been aware that his right-hand man - who oversaw major drug and anti-terrorism investigations - had had a gambling problem.

Bradley, in the tightly protected loop of the 18-month AFP investigation into Standen, is now paying the price with his all-powerful organisation's activities facing ongoing scrutiny, for the first time, by the NSW Police Integrity Commission.

The ramifications of Australia's highest-level police corruption investigation has spread rapidly across the length and breadth of the country.

State police forces and corruption watchdogs have launched reviews into all joint investigations with the NSW crime commission. Defence lawyers have warned that convictions, made on the back of Standen's work, may now be jeopardy.

And the NSW Government has, so far, rebutted calls for a royal commission into the affair.

It is a startling and, given the alleged plot to manufacture $120 million of ice - the scourge of Australia's youth - heinous stain on Standen's chequered career.

Standen has also enjoyed a paradoxical reputation as an investigator with an encyclopedic memory who got the bad guys.

One former AFP colleague, who worked with him in Sydney during the 1980s, said Standen, 51, had always been earmarked for greatness.

"In the early days after the formation of the AFP, he and guys like (now-AFP commissioner) Mick Keelty were viewed as the new breed of commonwealth copper on the rise," the veteran drug investigator, now retired, told The Weekend Australian. "They were smart, forensic in their methods and played the part. They were well-groomed, fit and knew how to talk to the bosses."

But Standen, who grew up in the inner-west Sydney suburb of Burwood and started his career in June 1975 on the wharves with the Australian Customs Service, should never have been allowed into the AFP soon after it was formed in 1979.

In 1982, the Stewart Royal Commission into Drug Trafficking heard that Standen had worked for the Federal Narcotics Bureau, then an arm of Customs and which later amalgamated with the AFP.

The commission heard that in May 1979, Standen and two other "narco" agents had raided a Bondi house of a man called Udy, where they found 18 silver foils of hashish. Standen later told the royal commission he and his colleagues had, weeks later, flushed the hash down a toilet, falsified entries into the bureau's log book that nothing was found in the raid and then destroyed a signed statement from Udy confessing to his ownership of the drugs - effectively removing any trace of the bust.

"I do not actually specifically remember the incident - I feel fairly certain I would have destroyed it by shredding," Standen told the commission about this confession.

Asked by the commissioner if the men were "really trying to obliterate all traces of this incident", Standen responded: "That is correct."

Standen told the royal commission they destroyed the hashish and paperwork because the amounts of drugs was less than 500g and charges could not be brought under federal laws.

But a policeman - AFP chief superintendent John Reilly - who investigated the matter after a complaint was made by NSW police, offered a different version of how the agents explained their actions.

According to Reilly, the agents claimed there had been problems with charging Udy because of a lack of co-operation from local police and that they then became embarrassed about having held on to the hashish for more than two weeks. Phillips said that Standen's answers during the investigation "'reflected on either his honesty or his quality as an investigator".

Standen was then charged under the Public Service Act and recommendations made that he and another agent were to be barred from joining the AFP when the Narcotic's Bureau merged into the new commonwealth force later that year.

But the royal commission heard that the charge and AFP ban were dropped because of "indecision by members of the Department of Administrative Services and what was then Business and Consumer Affairs".

Standen moved into the AFP.

Joining him in the AFP was one of Standen's close "narco" colleagues, Allan Gregory McLean, later convicted for importing heroin into Australia.

When the narcotics agents joined the AFP in 1979, Standen went to work in the Sydney office, where, by all accounts, his gambling problems grew.

Federal agents who were his workmates said it was widely known that he had a problem and he was a regular punter on the horses, racking up a debt of about $70,000 at his favourite haunt - a hotel near AFP headquarters.

One recalls how Standen was chased for the money and ended up cashing in his superannuation, ostensibly to pay gambling debts.

His gambling was growing along with his reputation as a "fearsome investigator", and he was given a commendation for his work in the AFP's Drug Targeting Unit. He also met fellow AFP agent Dianne James.

When James met and married Bakhos "Bill" Jalalaty, 45 - who has also been charged in relation to the alleged drug importation - she left the AFP and went to work alongside him in their smallgoods company. But it appears that Standen and Jalalaty kept in touch.

In 1995, Standen took a voluntary redundancy and left the AFP with a clean record. He joined the NSW Crime Commission and was put in charge of what is known as the Gymea Reference, which has responsibility for, among other crimes, investigating organised crime, drug importation, and the manufacture and distribution of drugs.

During his time with the commission, Standen made headlines - for the wrong reasons. In 2006, it emerged that the commission had sanctioned an informant to sell 7kg of cocaine to a suspected drug ring, with links to Qantas baggage handlers. Only 1kg was ever recovered, with 6kg allegedly sold on the streets after the Standen-led investigation.

At the time, a committal hearing heard the "jaw-dropping" claim by Standen that it was justified to allow the drug on the street because it could not seriously endanger anyone's health.

The leader of the drug syndicate, Michael Hurley, escaped the police dragnet - after an alleged tip-off. He was later arrested and died before standing trial.

But Standen alleged in a complaint to AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty that a highly decorated AFP investigator, Gerry Fletcher, was the source of the leak.

Mr Keelty this week confirmed he and Standen had previously both worked out of the current AFP Sydney headquarters in Goulburn Street and might have been involved in some of the same operations.

"It's no more and no less than that," he said.

Fletcher - who years earlier arrested Standen's mate, Allan Gregory McLean - was later sacked, then cleared before being reinstated to the AFP.

AFP sources have told The Weekend Australian it was Standen's intricate knowledge of the police's investigatory methods - and how best to avoid detection - that allegedly armed him with the confidence that he could get away with the alleged plan.

Standen was allegedly even heard in intercepts playing down the abilities of his colleagues to Jalalaty, telling him not to give "them" too much credit and that they were never that good.

It is alleged Standen used his insider knowledge to find out which cargo containers were searched. At the same time, he sat in on high-level police meetings convened to discuss the latest organised crime and illicit drug movements and top secret law enforcement operations.

Police will allege that Standen - facing mounting gambling debts - stood to make $1 million from the plot to import 600kg of pseudoephedrine - the precursor chemical used to get ice - in a container of rice aboard the cargo carrier Sinotrans Shanghai. Standen allegedly has told AFP investigators that Jalalaty had given him large sums of money in recent years.

At one stage, Standen is alleged to have told Jalalaty he would be happy with $100,000 from the plot because "then he would be able to breathe".

In early 2006, Australian police were tipped off by their Dutch counterparts to the plan - which was allegedly being masterminded by Briton James Kinch.

Australian police immediately launched their investigation with round-the-clock surveillance of Standen and Jalalaty. Kinch, 49 - arrested last week in Thailand - had lent Jalalaty $1.7 million to set-up his food business as a cover for the alleged drug plot.

From May 2006, police and investigators - including Standen's own colleagues - intercepted thousands of conversations between the plotters.

Unaware of the around-the-clock surveillance, Standen and Jalalaty pressed on. Last weekend - after Dutch police arrested the plotters at the European end of the alleged scheme - it is believed one of the Australians went to the wharves to pick up the drugs they had arranged to be imported hidden in bags of rice.

It was time for the AFP to make their move.

Additional reading: How elite agents went off the rails

The cocaine, the dealer and the green light


In early February 2005, an extraordinary scene unfolded inside the Kent Street offices of the highly secretive NSW Crime Commission.
 
In the presence of several police officers, kilograms of cocaine were being bagged up by a drug dealer in preparation for sale on the streets of Sydney and Melbourne.

The dealer, codenamed Tom, was even allowed to bring along his own special equipment - a kind of vacuum-bag sealer described later in evidence as a "compression kit".

While one officer videotaped the scene, Tom spent 15 to 30 minutes preparing the drugs for sale.
Overseeing what later would become known as Operation Mocha was Mark Standen, the Crime Commission's chief of investigations, who was charged this week with international drug trafficking.

Evidence given later in a magistrate's court about the way Standen ran his end of Operation Mocha provides a glimpse into the commission's secretive and unorthodox world, and does much to explain why Standen had a cowboy reputation in legal and crime circles.

One lawyer told the Herald his clients used to refer to Standen as God because of the untrammelled power he seemed to exercise.

Mocha originated when Tom contacted Standen just before Christmas 2004 offering himself as an informant. Tom was a godsend to Standen. Unlike other informants, Tom was no small fry; he was a principal of a drug syndicate whose other kingpins were some of the major figures in Australian organised crime - Michael Hurley, and Hurley's associate Les Mara.

As a financier, Tom was responsible for the $24 million payment to the supplier of a previous shipment of cocaine. He also advised on Swiss bank accounts for others in the syndicate.

In a March 2006 court case, Tom explained his reasons for turning informer. "I'd had a gutful of my involvement with one particular person … I was so tortured emotionally. That prompted me to make the decision to contact the authorities," he said.

Standen informed his superior, the head of the commission, Phillip Bradley, of the contact. On February 2, 2005, Bradley and Standen briefed the then deputy NSW police commissioner, Andrew Scipione, about their plan to allow seven kilograms of cocaine, which Tom had buried in bushland at Wahroonga, to be sold by Tom so that the syndicate's supply network could be targeted as well.

The prospect of adverse publicity about police being complicit in the sale of such a quantity of cocaine was raised at the meeting, but the NSW police and the Crime Commission planned to go ahead.


It was decided at the meeting that the Australian Federal Police, prohibited by regulation from involving its police in such operations where drugs are not under their control, would concentrate on another importation due in March.

Operation Mocha went smoothly until May 2004, when Hurley was tipped off that Tom was working with the commission. Statewide arrests followed, but Hurley and Mara had fled.

During the ensuing court cases, details of the decision of the commission to allow Tom to sell the cocaine came to light.

Under cross-examination by one of the defence barristers, Graham Turnbull, Standen was asked about his decision to allow Tom to bag up the drugs for sale inside the commission premises.

Mr Turnbull: Was there any particular authority required for you do that at the Crime Commission; did someone have to sanction it?

Standen: No

Did you tell [Crime Commission boss] Mr Bradley that's what you were going to do?

- I may have, I don't recall.

Would it be fair to say that its highly unusual for drugs to be prepared for sale inside the Crime Commission office?

- Definitely unusual.

Before the issuing of a controlled operation authority?

- Before or after, it's still unusual.

When was it decided that that course of action would take place?

- I don't recall … likely to have been the evening before, but I don't recall.

Is there anywhere where you would have recorded that decision?

- No.

Was it something that had been foreshadowed to the Commissioner at any stage before it occurred?
- I don't think so.

Unsuccessfully, the defence tried to have the approval to sell the cocaine declared invalid on the grounds that the sale of prohibited drugs was a serious offence, and because the sale of cocaine was likely to seriously harm its users.

Asked how he addressed the health concerns he acknowledged, Standen replied: "There are no recorded deaths from cocaine use, which is one of the things we researched."

The magistrate, David Heilpern, expressed "some amazement" at this response from Standen, who admitted the AFP had expressed an in-principle objection to the drugs being sold. Quizzed on why the AFP declined involvement in the sale of the cocaine, Standen initially said it was because federal police decided to leave it to state police, then later said word had " filtered down" to him that the AFP objected in principle.

Behind the scenes, federal police were furious. Not only were the drugs never recovered, the AFP hierarchy considered the commission's approach cavalier.

For about a year, the federal police commissioner, Mick Keelty, refused to attend crime commission meetings, despite being one of only four people on its management committee.

Perhaps the AFP had other reasons to be angry with the crime commission.

As Standen sat in the witness box that March 2006 day - giving evidence about a drug conspiracy he had been instrumental in dismantling - the AFP already had been tipped off about his alleged involvement in his own drug importation plan.

Friday, June 6, 2008

AFP head Mick Keelty had fears on crime fighters

Angus Hohenboken and Natalie O'Brien From: The Australian June 06, 2008

AUSTRALIAN Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty had concerns about the operations of the secretive NSW Crime Commission as early as 2005.

Mr Keelty, who is on the board of management of the commission, wrote to then NSW police minister Carl Scully outlining his concerns.

"I withdrew from the management meetings when I highlighted some issues to the former minister and I wanted those issues addressed," Mr Keelty said yesterday. "And those issues have long since been addressed and I've been participating in the meetings ever since."

Australia's police and anti-corruption forces have been rocked by this week's arrest of Mark Standen, the NSW Crime Commission's assistant director of investigations, over an alleged plot to import enough pseudoephedrine to make $120 million worth of the drug ice.

NSW Police Minister David Campbell said yesterday the state's Police Integrity Commission would for the first time be given oversight of the commission, in a move designed to restore public confidence in the notoriously secretive crimefighting organisation.

Mr Campbell said the PIC, which has the powers of a royal commission, would oversee all activities of the crime commission. He told NSW parliament the changes would come into effect immediately and would not diminish the oversight role of the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

It emerged yesterday that the ICAC was told of allegations involving Mr Standen nine months ago, while his lover and former colleague, Louise Baker, was working for the organisation. She is on leave and is not a suspect in the investigation involving Mr Standen. Mr Campbell told parliament that the ICAC first became aware of allegations against Mr Standen in September last year, while Ms Baker was on secondment from the crime commission.

Criminal Defence Lawyers Association president Phillip Boulten SC said the move to give the NSW PIC oversight of the commission was a step in the right direction, but the Government should go further.

Opposition police spokesman Mike Gallacher said the PIC was nothing but a "secret police boys' club". "The PIC and the crime commission have worked together on a number of investigations in the past few years, blurring the lines between the two agencies," Mr Gallacher said. "The inextricable links between these agencies make it laughable to suggest one could investigate the other and retain public confidence."

Drugs in coded kiddie talk between accused Mark Standen, Bill Jalalaty

By Janet Fife-Yeomans From: The Daily Telegraph June 06, 2008 12:00AM

THEY talked about kids, presents, toys and treasure hunts but what their secret code was hiding was not child's play.

Mark Standen and Bill Jalalaty thought they could hide their true intentions of smuggling drugs behind kiddie talk but it turned out that they were the fools - not the investigators spying on them.

After months of allegedly referring to the pseudoephedrine they were planning to smuggle into Australia as simply "it", earlier this year they became more adventurous.

The drugs became "toys" or "children" and the plotters referred to each other as kids whose happiness ebbed and flowed depending on their confidence in pulling off the multi-million dollar deal.

James Kinch, the men's alleged link to the Netherlands drug syndicate, asked Standen in May this year "how the children were".

He was referring to the second trial shipment of rice which had arrived in Sydney.

Standen told Kinch, known by various nicknames including JoJo, Julie and B52, that the kids were fine.

When Jalalaty became concerned about the time it was taking to clear the rice shipment from the wharves, Standen allegedly sent him an email expressing disappointment that Jalalaty was "pulling out of the big tennis match".

With the "kids getting restless" and not knowing if their suppliers had hidden drugs in the second shipment of rice, Kinch told Jalalaty on May 31 that the "toys" may be wrapped in foil and suggested he get a metal detector and go on a treasure hunt. About 90 minutes later, Kinch was arrested in Bangkok.

On June 2, unaware the clock was ticking down to his own arrest, Jalalaty replied to Kinch saying that his kids loved playing hide and seek and once he had the toys in his hand, he would hide them.

Hours later, he was arrested.

Additional Reading - The cocaine, the dealer and the green light

KATE MCCLYMONT AND DEBORAH SNOW 06 Jun, 2008 10:00 PM

In early February 2005, an extraordinary scene unfolded inside the Kent Street offices of the highly secretive NSW Crime Commission.

In the presence of several police officers, kilograms of cocaine were being bagged up by a drug dealer in preparation for sale on the streets of Sydney and Melbourne.

The dealer, codenamed Tom, was even allowed to bring along his own special equipment - a kind of vacuum-bag sealer described later in evidence as a "compression kit".

While one officer videotaped the scene, Tom spent 15 to 30 minutes preparing the drugs for sale.
Mark Standen

Overseeing what later would become known as Operation Mocha was Mark Standen, the Crime Commission's chief of investigations, who was charged this week with international drug trafficking.

Evidence given later in a magistrate's court about the way Standen ran his end of Operation Mocha provides a glimpse into the commission's secretive and unorthodox world, and does much to explain why Standen had a cowboy reputation in legal and crime circles.

One lawyer told the Herald his clients used to refer to Standen as God because of the untrammelled power he seemed to exercise.

Gotcha ... Mara  /  South Coast Register
Mocha originated when Tom contacted Standen just before Christmas 2004 offering himself as an informant. Tom was a godsend to Standen. Unlike other informants, Tom was no small fry; he was a principal of a drug syndicate whose other kingpins were some of the major figures in Australian organised crime - Michael Hurley, and Hurley's associate Les Mara.

As a financier, Tom was responsible for the $24 million payment to the supplier of a previous shipment of cocaine. He also advised on Swiss bank accounts for others in the syndicate.

In a March 2006 court case, Tom explained his reasons for turning informer. "I'd had a gutful of my involvement with one particular person … I was so tortured emotionally. That prompted me to make the decision to contact the authorities," he said.

Standen informed his superior, the head of the commission, Phillip Bradley, of the contact. On February 2, 2005, Bradley and Standen briefed the then deputy NSW police commissioner, Andrew Scipione, about their plan to allow seven kilograms of cocaine, which Tom had buried in bushland at Wahroonga, to be sold by Tom so that the syndicate's supply network could be targeted as well.

Crime Commission head Phil Bradley approved the operation, in which
 the drugs came from underworld figure Michael Hurley
.
The prospect of adverse publicity about police being complicit in the sale of such a quantity of cocaine was raised at the meeting, but the NSW police and the Crime Commission planned to go ahead.

It was decided at the meeting that the Australian Federal Police, prohibited by regulation from involving its police in such operations where drugs are not under their control, would concentrate on another importation due in March.

Operation Mocha went smoothly until May 2004, when Hurley was tipped off that Tom was working with the commission. Statewide arrests followed, but Hurley and Mara had fled.

During the ensuing court cases, details of the decision of the commission to allow Tom to sell the cocaine came to light.

Under cross-examination by one of the defence barristers, Graham Turnbull, Standen was asked about his decision to allow Tom to bag up the drugs for sale inside the commission premises.

Mr Turnbull: Was there any particular authority required for you do that at the Crime Commission; did someone have to sanction it?

Standen: No

Did you tell [Crime Commission boss] Mr Bradley that's what you were going to do?

- I may have, I don't recall.

Would it be fair to say that its highly unusual for drugs to be prepared for sale inside the Crime Commission office?

- Definitely unusual.

Before the issuing of a controlled operation authority?

- Before or after, it's still unusual.

When was it decided that that course of action would take place?

- I don't recall … likely to have been the evening before, but I don't recall.

Is there anywhere where you would have recorded that decision?

- No.

Was it something that had been foreshadowed to the Commissioner at any stage before it occurred?

- I don't think so.

Unsuccessfully, the defence tried to have the approval to sell the cocaine declared invalid on the grounds that the sale of prohibited drugs was a serious offence, and because the sale of cocaine was likely to seriously harm its users.

Asked how he addressed the health concerns he acknowledged, Standen replied: "There are no recorded deaths from cocaine use, which is one of the things we researched."

The magistrate, David Heilpern, expressed "some amazement" at this response from Standen, who admitted the AFP had expressed an in-principle objection to the drugs being sold. Quizzed on why the AFP declined involvement in the sale of the cocaine, Standen initially said it was because federal police decided to leave it to state police, then later said word had " filtered down" to him that the AFP objected in principle.

Behind the scenes, federal police were furious. Not only were the drugs never recovered, the AFP hierarchy considered the commission's approach cavalier.

For about a year, the federal police commissioner, Mick Keelty, refused to attend crime commission meetings, despite being one of only four people on its management committee.

Perhaps the AFP had other reasons to be angry with the crime commission.

As Standen sat in the witness box that March 2006 day - giving evidence about a drug conspiracy he had been instrumental in dismantling - the AFP already had been tipped off about his alleged involvement in his own drug importation plan.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

I knew he had a gambling problem, admits Standen's boss


AFP deputy commissioner Tony Negus, centre, with NSW Crime Commission head Phillip Bradley, right.
Photo: Kate Geraghty
ALLEGATIONS that Mark Standen had a gambling problem appear to have been widely known among law enforcement officers but how much his superiors knew is unclear.

When asked about the reputed gambling yesterday, the head of the NSW Crime Commission Phillip Bradley said, "Yes, recently we became aware of that."

Standen's barrister, Paul "Chewy" King, a former federal police officer, was angry about the "prejudicial comments" that those "in high positions" had made about his client yesterday.

Standen, 51, did not appear in court yesterday. Mr King, who had been up most of the night with his client, said Standen was "stressed" but was coping as well as could be expected.

Corrective Services was making sure he was kept in protection, Mr King said.

The arrest of the well-respected officer was the talk of the town among crime-fighters yesterday.
Given Standen's encyclopedic knowledge of organised crime in Australia, as well as his access to such sensitive areas as police informants, there was speculation about past NSW Crime Commission investigations that had gone awry.

Mr Bradley was keen to play down any speculation that other cases may have been tainted.

"We had a great deal of coverage [with] physical surveillance and electronic surveillance and that gave us some confidence that this was the only crime that he was involved in," he said.

However, questions are being asked about any connection Mr Standen might have had with James Henry Kinch, who has been arrested in Thailand in connection with the plan to import drugs.

Kinch was initially arrested five years ago over a plan to import ecstasy tablets concealed in pot plants.

The brief of evidence against Kinch was dropped and he subsequently fled the country. He is understood to have been one of Standen's informants.

Also arrested with Standen was Bakhos (Bill) Jalalaty, 45, of Maroota, near Wisemans Ferry. Court attendance notices revealed the pair's alleged conspiracy began two years ago at 9am on June 1, 2006, and continued until their arrest on Monday afternoon.

Jalalaty and Standen met through Jalalaty's wife, Dianne, who worked beside Standen when they were with the Australian Federal Police

The Lebanese-born Jalalaty, a former body-builder, is a providore. His family business BJ's Fine Foods has provided restaurants and David Jones Foodhalls with upmarket produce.

It has been alleged that Standen and Jalalaty were planning to hide 600 kilos of the precursor chemical pseudo- ephedrine in a shipment of basmati rice. Sent from Pakistan, it was due to arrive on Anzac Day but was apparently stolen.

Standen is best known for his work on the organised crime syndicate which led to the arrest of underworld figure Michael Hurley, who died in prison last year.

Although Hurley was a regular target for law-enforcement agencies, his connections with corrupt police over the years enabled him to stay one step ahead. Police moved against his gang in May 2005, but Hurley had been tipped off that a member of his syndicate was wearing a wire.

Hurley was arrested in 2006 after nine months on the run.

The tip-off led to a souring of relations between the federal police and the NSW Crime Commission. Senior federal police officer Gerry Fletcher was sacked after Standen and others accused him of leaking to Hurley.

Fletcher was cleared and has been reinstated by the AFP.

The federal police removed their seconded officers from the crime commission over arguments about the commission authorising the controlled sale of seven kilos of cocaine which Hurley had organised Qantas baggage handlers to bring into the country.

The AFP was opposed to the controversial plan to allow the commission's informant "Tom" to sell the drugs, which subsequently disappeared.

The arrest of Standen by the federal police is unlikely to thaw the frosty relationship between the two crime-fighting bodies.

    Govt 'couldn't act sooner' on Standen allegations

    Source ABC  Posted Thu Jun 5, 2008 9:23pm AEST

    New South Wales Police Minister David Campbell is on the backfoot after admitting he has known about serious allegations against a senior Crime Commission officer since last September.
    Mr Campbell says he was not able to act sooner.
    (AAP: Dean Lewins, file photo)

    Mark Standen has been charged over his alleged involvement in a plot to import chemicals for the manufacture of illegal drugs.

    Police allege the 51-year-old advised a global drug syndicate of the latest crime-fighting methods, in a plot to import 600 kilograms of chemicals to make $120 million worth of the drug 'ice'.

    The Police Integrity Commission (PIC) is to oversee all future activities of the Crime Commission in the wake of the damaging scandal.

    Mr Campbell says the PIC will now be the oversight body for all law enforcement agencies in New South Wales.

    The Opposition has questioned why it has taken until today for the Minister to respond to concerns about the Commission's autonomy.

    Mr Campbell says he was not able to act sooner.

    "I have been considering the oversight of the Crime Commission for some months but in the face of the advice of the Australian Federal Police that they wanted this covert operation to continue, those decisions were not taken and I think that's entirely appropriate," Mr Campbell said.

    Mr Campbell says he is acting swiftly to introduce greater oversight for the Crime Commission.

    "The Government will move to ensure the Police Integrity Commission has an oversight role of the State Crime Commission," he said.

    But Opposition police spokesman, Mike Gallacher, says the PIC is linked inextricably to the Crime Commission and is hardly an independent body.

    "There's only one option and the Government's going to be dragged kicking and screaming on this one - there's going to have to be an independent judicial review with royal commission powers," Mr Gallacher said.

    Standen case may complicate other prosecutions

    Mark Standen, arrested in his office by AFP
    By Jordan Baker, Dylan Welch and Andrew Clennell
    June 5, 2008

    WHEN the Australian Federal Police offered voluntary redundancies in an effort to thin its senior ranks in the mid-1990s, Mark Standen put up his hand, to the surprise of those who had marvelled at his remarkable career trajectory.

    But many of his law enforcement colleagues, even some at his future employer, the NSW Crime Commission, knew he spent a bit of the six-figure payout on finishing his backyard pool and the rest paying off huge gambling debts. The fact that Standen's gambling was an open secret more than 10 years ago raised questions yesterday about how the commission failed to tackle a problem that could open a senior investigator to corruption or compromise.

    The Premier, Morris Iemma, faced calls to set up an inquiry with the powers of a royal commission into the NSW Crime Commission after the senior investigator's arrest for allegedly planning to import ingredients to make the drug ice.

    The Commonwealth prosecutor's office moved yesterday to freeze assets in Australia and overseas of Standen's alleged co-conspirator, James Henry Kinch, who has a nightclub on the Algarve coast in Portugal and property in Ireland.

    The commission refused to comment on whether it had reopened investigations into suspicious leaks. One was to the drug barons Michael Hurley and Les Mara, who were tipped off to a police investigation and went into hiding.

    The second was an apparent tip-off to a senior bikie that his Cronulla unit was bugged in 2002. NSW detectives involved in the covert police operation reportedly believed the leak came from the Crime Commission.

    The commission's head, Phillip Bradley, also refused to explain why the notoriously secretive body failed to monitor its senior investigators' financial liabilities, or whether it ever took any steps to counsel Standen over his gambling, mostly on horses.

    At Central Local Court yesterday Michael Ainsworth, the barrister for two men accused of participating in a Sydney cocaine ring, referred to Standen's involvement and said the case now had "problems".

    It is understood that Standen's name appears frequently across the brief of evidence tendered by the prosecution. In particular he was the officer who signed the document granting immunity to "Mr X", the chief Crown witness.

    Outside court Mr Ainsworth said Standen's charging could have implications for Crime Commission cases before the courts.

    The Opposition's police spokesman, Mike Gallacher, called for a commission of inquiry into the scandal, which would also look at how it released 10 kilograms of cocaine and recovered only one, and how the drug dealer Les Mara was tipped off to an arrest.

    He said suggestions that the Independent Commission Against Corruption may be able to look at the commission had been compromised with news that Standen had conducted an affair with a colleague who now worked for the ICAC.

    The Police Association and Law Society joined calls by the Opposition for an independent oversight body to monitor the organisation as a parliamentary committee monitors the ICAC.

    Wednesday, June 4, 2008

    Standen girlfriend's anti-corruption job revealed

    Source ABC Posted Wed Jun 4, 2008 7:47am AEST

    The New South Wales corruption watchdog has confirmed one of its workers is the girlfriend of a top drug investigator accused of trying to help with one of Australia's biggest-ever drug importations.

    Mark Standen, an assistant director at the NSW Crime Commission, has allegedly worked with a Netherlands drug ring, with links to Asia, to import 600 kilograms of chemicals to make more than $120 million worth of ice.

    Tasked with busting drug traffickers, the 51-year-old was privy to senior police chiefs' discussions of the most important investigations into organised crime.

    He was remanded in custody at Central Local Court yesterday and is expected to apply for bail next week.

    The Commissioner of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, Jerrold Cripps, says Standen's girlfriend works for the watchdog in assessments and is on secondment from the Crime Commission.

    Commissioner Cripps says she still works there and Federal Police have told managers she is not a suspect in the drug investigation.

    The Australian Federal Police (AFP) say the drug ring's plot was to import the chemicals in a container of rice shipped from Pakistan.

    They raided the ship when it arrived on Anzac Day but found nothing. It is believed the chemicals were intercepted on the way.

    AFP link between two drug accused

    Natalie O'Brien From: The Australian June 04, 2008 12:00Am

    MARK Standen, the top criminal investigator charged this week over an international drug-smuggling conspiracy, was introduced to his alleged partner in crime by a former workmate at the Australian Federal Police.

    Mr Standen, 51, was an AFP agent at the same time as Dianne Jalalaty (nee Jones). Ms Jalalaty is the wife of Bakhos (Bill) Jalalaty, the Sydney food importer also facing charges relating to the attempted importation of chemicals that were to be used to make $120 million worth of the deadly drug ice.
    NSW Crime Commission chief Phillip Bradley

    AFP Deputy Commissioner Tony Negus said yesterday that Ms Jalalaty had been an AFP officer but had left the force some years ago.

    "All links to the individuals will be investigated but at this stage she has not been charged and we don't anticipate that in the near future, but we don't rule anything out," Mr Negus said yesterday.

    Mr Standen, the assistant director of the secretive and powerful NSW Crime Commission, was arrested at his desk in his Sydney office on Monday.

    The cases of Mr Standen and Mr Jalalaty, 45, came separately before the Sydney Central Local Court yesterday. They face the same three charges: conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of a border controlled precursor; conspiracy to supply 600kg of pseudoephedrine; and conspiring to pervert the course of justice by using "privileged information" in relation to the judicial power of the commonwealth. Neither man applied for bail and they have been remanded in custody. Mr Standen is expected to make a bail application next week.

    If convicted, they could face life imprisonment or a $600,000 fine.

    Mr Standen was arrested by AFP agents as part of a series of co-ordinated raids in Europe, Thailand and Sydney.

    NSW Crime Commission chief Phillip Bradley yesterday made a rare public appearance to insist Mr Standen's arrest was an isolated incident.

    "It's very damaging, there's no doubt about that," Mr Bradley said at a media conference at AFP headquarters in Sydney.

    Mr Bradley confirmed that Mr Standen had a gambling problem, saying it had recently come to his notice. "Yes, recently we became aware of that," he said.

    Former colleagues described Mr Standen as a fearsome investigator with a "photographic mind" and zest for rooting out corruption.

    When Mr Standen joined the commission he was put in charge of what is known in the body as the Gymea Reference, which has responsibility for investigating organised crime, drug importation, and the manufacture and distribution of drugs. In his position he was privy to every major drug and organised crime operation in NSW.

    Mr Standen and Mr Jalalaty appear to be an odd couple. While Mr Standen is a successful, high-ranking law enforcement agent, Mr Jalalaty is an odd-jobs man, with a chequered professional career that included a stint as a stripper with the curious nickname of "Boxhead".

    "Some people used to say he was the hairiest stripper they had ever seen," one associate said yesterday.

    The two met through Ms Jalalaty, who worked as an AFP agent at the same time as Mr Standen and introduced her husband to her colleague.

    Ms Jalalaty left the AFP about the same time Mr Standen left to join the NSW Crime Commission in 1996. But her husband and her former workmate allegedly stayed in touch.

    Mr Standen and Mr Jalalaty have been under surveillance by the AFP for the past 12 months and it will be alleged that they had been working with a criminal syndicate in The Netherlands to import the chemicals.

    Mr Kinch
    The investigation started in January 2006 with a shipment of ephedrine from the Congo. It will be alleged that Mr Standen flew to Dubai and met a Sydney man and a Briton, James Henry Kinch, to plot the importation of 600kg of ephedrine in a container of basmati rice. A ship left Singapore for Sydney via Pakistan and arrived on Anzac Day. But the chemicals had been stolen en route.

    Last week police swooped, arresting 11 Dutch nationals. Mr Kinch was arrested in Thailand. The AFP will seek his extradition.

    Mr Negus said it had been a highly intricate and complex investigation. "The ability to co-ordinate this across multiple agencies, jurisdictions and legal systems has been unprecedented," he said.

    Additional reporting: Ean Higgins

    Arrested officer 'used his elite role'

    On 4 June 2008 Ashleigh Wilson of
    The Australian reported “Arrested officer 'used his elite role'”.
    Image ABC: Mark Standen
    It was said that Mark Standen has been accused of using "privileged information" in his role as an elite NSW crime investigator to traffic a commercial amount of illegal drugs. Mr Standen, 51, was said to have been surprised by the dramatic developments on Monday, when he was arrested and charged over his alleged role in a drug importation ring. The NSW Crime Commission investigator remained in the cells beneath Sydney's Central Local Court yesterday and did not apply for bail when his case came before magistrate Allan Moore.

    Bakhos Jalalaty Source: The Daily Telegraph
    He was charged with conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of a border-controlled precursor, and conspiracy to supply 600kg of pseudoephedrine. He was also charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice by using "privileged information" in relation to the judicial power of the commonwealth. His alleged co-conspirator, Bakhos Jalalaty, 45, faces the same three charges and will return to court on June 30.

    But ahead of a planned bail application next Wednesday, Mr Standen's lawyer Paul King called on senior police figures to avoid making what he described as "prejudicial" comments about the case in public. "I would hope that these people would refrain from making comments and remind everybody that at this particular time he has a presumption of innocence," Mr King said outside the court. "He is entitled to be dealt with in the criminal justice system exactly the same way as anyone else." Mr King thanked the state's Department of Corrective Services for giving Mr Standen additional protection following his arrest, saying it was "common knowledge" that his client's life would be in danger in jail. "As I understand it, he's being looked after and that's all I can ask for," said Mr King, who admitted he did not personally know where his client was being held.

    He said he understood Mr Standen's family was finding the case difficult to bear, while the senior officer himself was "coping". "He's obviously stressed and upset about the whole thing," Mr King said. "I think it's all taken him by surprise." The Australian Federal Police said the maximum penalty for conspiracy to supply a commercial drug was life imprisonment and/or a $660,000 fine, while conspiracy to import a border-controlled precursor attracted 25 years' jail and/or a $550,000 fine. The maximum penalty for perverting the course of justice was five years' imprisonment.

    Honest officer Gerry Fletcher long fight for career

    On 4 June 2008 the Daily Telegraph reported “Honest officer Gerry Fletcher long fight for career”.
    It said, one of the country's top organised crime investigators spent three years and $60,000 fighting for his career after Mark Standen lodged what was found to be an unfounded complaint against him.

    Detective Sergeant Gerry Fletcher was reinstated to the Australian Federal Police in March after being cleared of an allegation made by Standen that he had leaked information to cocaine kingpin Michael Hurley, blowing a major investigation into baggage handlers smuggling drugs through Sydney airport. Agent Fletcher's wife Jenny said she felt vindicated by Standen's arrest.

    Then-Operation Rhodium, a joint investigation by the NSW Crime Commission, AFP and NSW Police to infiltrate Hurley's gang using 7kg of cocaine, was a disaster with 6kg of the drug going missing. Agent Fletcher, with more than 30 years' service in the AFP, had worked with Standen on a number of major drug investigations but was not working on Operation Rhodium when he received a phone call at work in April 2005 from a man wanting to meet. The man waiting at the coffee shop in full view of AFP headquarters in Goulburn St turned out to be Hurley, who was suffering from cancer and died in January 2007.

    As soon as he returned to work, Agent Fletcher wrote a report for Standen at the Crime Commission informing him that Hurley said he would be leaving the country in four weeks. After Hurley fled the country, Standen lodged a complaint with the AFP claiming Agent Fletcher had leaked news of the investigation to Hurley. Agent Fletcher was dismissed from the AFP in February 2006 but cleared of any wrongdoing by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, which in June 2007 ordered the AFP to reinstate him. Mrs Fletcher said: "I would like to see an investigation into the AFP's handling of the whole affair."

    Roger Rogerson allegedly asked to find lost $1m drug cash

    The Daily Telegraph June 04, 2008 11:30pm

    Roger Rogerson has alleged he and a friend were asked by Mark Standen to find $1m supposedly lent by drug dealers. Standen and his co-accused Bill Jalalaty face charges over Australia's largest ice cartel.
    Source: News Interactive
    NSW's most notorious detective Roger Rogerson alleged last night he and a friend had been asked by Mark Standen to help recover $1 million supposedly lent by Dutch drug dealers.

    The Daily Telegraph can reveal that police believe Standen and his co-accused Bill Jalalaty lost the money they were allegedly given as a pre-payment to set up the Australian end of the deal to manufacture $120 million worth of the drug ice.
    It can also be revealed that Standen's secret lover Louise Baker was not at her high-ranking job at ICAC yesterday as the fallout surrounding the biggest police corruption scandal in NSW deepened.

    "It's an amazing story," Rogerson said last night.

    According to a police intelligence report, the money was lent by the 10-man, one-woman criminal syndicate in the Netherlands to establish "business opportunities", but instead was gambled and lost in speculative investments.

    As AFP agents from Operation Octans tracked the alleged drug conspirators for more than a year, they indirectly tapped into Sydney's underworld.

    Telephone taps and surveillance recorded Rogerson and his friend Frank Wheeler, a former employee of the late standover men Tim Bristow and Michael "No Thumbs" Pestano, being approached to help find the lost $1 million investment.

    Standen, 51, assistant director of the NSW Crime Commission, and Jalalaty, 45, a Sydney food wholesaler, were this week charged with conspiracy to import and supply a large quantity of drugs.
    It is alleged they conspired to import ephedrine to manufacture the drug ice in Australia.

    The conspiracy allegedly took place between 9am on June 1, 2006, and 2.45pm on June 2, 2008, the time of their arrests.

    Mr Wheeler told The Daily Telegraph that Standen, who he knew through debt recovery work he had done with the NSW Crime Commission, contacted him in late 2006.

    "He said I have a friend who has come to me and he's lost $1 million and there's nothing I can do to help him," he said.

    He said he agreed that Standen could pass on his number.

    Mr Wheeler said he was contacted by Jalalaty and they met in the Doncaster Hotel and agreed to help him track down the money Jalalaty told him he had given to someone to invest, expecting an interest rate of 15 per cent per month.

    "He had stars in his eyes. He kept repeating that he was going to get back $2.4 million. This guy absconded with his money," Mr Wheeler said.

    He said he believed Jalalaty had been ripped off by a "bird dog", people who target rich businessmen. Mr Wheeler said he has a signed document from the Australian man acknowledging the debt.

    He said he traced the money to a UK commodities dealer and then to the Bahamas but Jalalaty could not afford to pay him the $50,000 to "take the boys" and go there and collect it.

    "I know who the guy is. Mark Standen knew about the $1 million," Mr Wheeler alleged. He said he contacted Rogerson to ask his opinion on what to do.

    "I never had any suspicion that it may have been drug money. If I had thought that, I would have let the authorities know," Mr Wheeler said.

    Rogerson said he had no idea so much money was involved and had thought it was about $100,000.

    "I have known Frank for years. Frank spoke to me about it and said he was trying to locate someone to speak to about getting the money back for this guy," Rogerson said.

    "That's it in a nutshell.

    "I had nothing to do with it."

    In 2004, Mr Wheeler was involved in the attempted eviction of the Nam family from a farm near Wellington in the state's Central West. He was then working for Mr Pestano.

    The Nams claimed they were threatened and Tim Nam shot Mr Pestano dead.

    Gambling debt claim over top crime buster Mark Standen

    By Charles Miranda and Lisa Davies
    June 04, 2008 12:00AM

    A TOP crime buster is believed to have lost $1 million on the punt before he was arrested over allegations that he masterminded one of Australia's biggest drug runs.

    Complex operation: Mick Keelty. Herald Sun

    Mark Standen re-mortgaged his family home and cashed in his superannuation to pay for losses on the horses, a source told the Herald Sun.

    The NSW Crime Commission assistant director was arrested on Monday over his alleged role in trying to import chemicals to produce $120 million worth of the deadly drug ice.

    It was also revealed last night that Mr Standen's lover works at NSW's Independent Commission Against Corruption.

    Australian Federal Police boss Mick Keelty yesterday described the allegations against Mr Standen as some one of the most serious potential breaches of law enforcement he had seen.

    Mr Standen is said to have had more than $1 million in gambling debts to telephone bookies and to have cashed in his AFP superannuation, and mortgaged a marital home to the hilt.

    His girlfriend, who worked with him at the Crime Commission in the top-secret area of telephone intercepts, was recently seconded to the ICAC, where she works in the assessments section.

    Sources said Mr Standen and his lover had lunch together on Monday before he was arrested at his desk.

    Mr Standen, 51, did not apply for bail at Sydney's Central Local Court yesterday, remaining in the cells beneath the court for the brief mention hearing.

    His gambling addiction was an open secret in the AFP before he left to join the Crime Commission, a source said.

    And commission director Phillip Bradley said yesterday he knew Mr Standen had a gambling problem.

    He said Mr Standen's arrest was "very damaging, there's no doubt about that".

    All high-level criminal cases in Australia will be reviewed after Mr Standen's arrest.

    Mr Standen had access to information on organised crime lords and drug cartels operating in Australia and overseas.

    A source described his 30-year knowledge of cases and criminals as encyclopedic.

    Mr Keelty said the two-year investigation, dubbed Operation Octans, that culminated in the arrest of Mr Standen and 13 others worldwide was one of the most complex he had ever seen.

    "The complexity of this is something that is very difficult to describe, given we had to co-ordinate the law enforcement agencies in Netherlands, in Portugal, in Germany, in Pakistan, in Thailand and obviously Australia," he said.

    Mr Standen's wife, Lynn, refused to speak at their Sydney's waterfront home yesterday.

    The two-storey, three-garage home with an in-ground pool was bought in Mark Standen's name in December 2006 for $737,500.

    Documents show there are two mortgages on the house, for $400,000 and $322,190. Neighbours said they were quiet and liked big family barbecues.

    The Australian Crime Commission has stepped in to question Mr Standen's lover and other NSW commission officers.

    A second officer, who was close to Mr Standen, is believed to have resigned after being interviewed.

    ICAC Commissioner Jerrold Cripps said he had been kept informed about the AFP investigation into Mr Standen.

    He said Mr Standen's lover was not a suspect in the plan to import enough ephedrine to flood Sydney and Melbourne with ice.

    Senior officers were shocked at the ICAC link.

    "This is worse than we realised," a source said.

    Tuesday, June 3, 2008

    Investigator's arrest sends shockwave through police ranks


    Source ABC Posted Tue Jun 3, 2008 10:17am AEST


    The arrests were linked to Operation Octans, run by the Australian Federal Police (AFP), and involved work with authorities in the Netherlands, Pakistan, the UK, the United Arab Emirates and Portugal.

    Portugal was home to James Henry Kinch, a British national born in Ireland who was arrested in Bangkok on Saturday and is described as a crucial middle man.

    'One of the best'

    Within the Australian law enforcement community, the New South Wales Crime Commission is regarded as an elite unit, and Standen is viewed as one of it best criminal investigators.

    Among his achievements are spearheading the commission's investigation into a cocaine-smuggling ring involving Sydney drug lord Michael Hurley.

    But yesterday it must have seemed as though his world had turned upside down when the AFP raided the Crime Commission's offices in Sydney.

    AFP officers shut off computers and locked the building down. They then arrested Standen for his alleged involvement in a major chemical importation plot.

    Veteran ABC Four Corners journalist Chris Masters says Standen has a fierce reputation as an investigator.

    "Even though this is not somebody who's well known across Australia, within policing circles he's very well known," he said.

    Standen's career began 30 years ago, policing Sydney's docks.

    He then joined the AFP before being recruited by the New South Wales Crime Commission a decade ago.

    Chris Masters says the arrest has sent shockwaves through the highest echelons of Australian policing.

    "The New South Wales Crime Commission are pretty much the elite of crime fighting in New South Wales and one I have to say, I know it's controversial, but one that I've had a lot of respect for over the last decade or so. They do a lot," he said.

    Rotten core?


    Standen became a person of interest in May last year, but because the world of top investigators in Australia is so small, less than a dozen people could know he was under investigation.

    The ABC has been told the only person who knew at the New South Wales Crime Commission was his boss.

    His arrest is likely to have wider ramifications for the New South Wales Crime Commission.

    The Commission has special investigative powers, which include the right to compel witnesses to testify and the ability to conduct covert surveillance operations.

    Phillip Boulten SC, president of the Criminal Defence Lawyers' Association, says there is growing concern among lawyers that the Commission is overstepping its mark.

    "The New South Wales Crime Commission is a very powerful body with draconian powers that is next to unaccountable," he said.

    "It's been running very strong in this state for many years without anybody really checking into it.

    "I'm suggesting either that there be a Royal Commission into the operation of the New South Wales Crime Commission or that a judicial officer be given full power to review its operations so as to report back to the Parliament of New South Wales about whether or not the Crime Commission is indeed fulfilling its charter."

    Adapted from AM reports by Michael Edwards and Rafael Epstein.

    Additional Information - File 5 - PM Interview


    PM

    Tuesday 3 June 2008
    Crime fighter charged with drug conspiracy offences

    MARK COLVIN: One of Australia's most senior drug investigators is behind bars tonight, charged with the type of serious offences he usually policed himself.

    Prosecutors charged the assistant director of investigations with the New South Wales Crime Commission, Mark Standen, with being part of a international drug conspiracy to import and manufacture millions of dollars worth of the drug ice.

    It is alleged that he used his position at the crime fighting agency to commit the offences.

    The Australian Federal Police allege that Standen wasn't acting alone, they've charged another Sydney man, Bakhos Jalalaty, charged with the same offences, and 13 other people have been arrested overseas.

    Karen Barlow reports.

    KAREN BARLOW: Fifty-one-year-old Mark William Standen is one of Australia's top investigators.

    His boss is a commissioner of the New South Wales Crime Commission, Phillip Bradley.

    PHILLIP BRADLEY: Mr Standen has a long career in law enforcement and a successful career. He is a very capable investigator and he has risen on the back of his performance.

    KAREN BARLOW: But Mark Standen is today accused of taking part in what the Australian Federal Police are calling a major and sophisticated international drug smuggling syndicate.

    The AFP's deputy commissioner operations, Tony Negus, alleges the plan was to import a large quantity of pseudoephedrine, a chemical which would have later been altered to form the street drug ice.

    TONY NEGUS: Around 480 kilograms of ice could have been produced from the 600 kilograms of pseudoephedrine, worth around $120-million on the streets of Australia.

    KAREN BARLOW: The total arrests so far are 15, two in Sydney, 12 in the Netherlands and one in Bangkok.

    The two Australians, Mark Standen and Bakhos Jalalaty are not described by police as principals in the alleged conspiracy, but a police will allege their crimes took place over a two-year period and police say they have been watching them for a year.

    Standen and Jalalaty have been charged with the same three offences: conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of a border-controlled precursor; conspiracy to supply a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug; and conspiracy to defeat justice.

    The last charge refers to how Mark Standen's place of employment, the New South Wales Crime Commission, was allegedly used in the importation conspiracy.

    While Standen was also investigating other crimes, he was extensively monitored to allow the case against him to be developed.

    The head of the New South Wales Crime Commission, Phillip Bradley.

    PHILLIP BRADLEY: We had a great deal of coverage of him through both physical surveillance and electronic surveillance.

    KAREN BARLOW: It was a complex and global police investigation that led to the arrests.

    The Federal Minister for Home Affairs, Bob Debus, says the Australian Federal Police has had to work closely with other agencies over the past two years.

    BOB DEBUS: The operation required the AFP to work closely with Australian jurisdictions and officers from the Netherlands, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and Thailand.

    KAREN BARLOW: Bob Debus says told Parliament that the $120-million police price tag on the drugs is not the whole story.

    BOB DEBUS: The AFP has also estimated that if those drugs had reached the community they would have cause a $140-million worth of harm in terms of social and welfare payments, medical treatment and policing.

    KAREN BARLOW: The chemicals never made it to Australia, and the whereabouts of the pseudoephedrine is unknown.

    Mark Standen and Bakhos Jalalaty are in custody tonight. Their lawyers are expected to apply for bail on separate dates later this month.

    Their cases briefly came before Sydney's Central Local Court today, however they were not required to appear before Magistrate Allan Moore.

    Mark Standen's barrister Paul King says his client is being separated from other people in cells for his own safety and is in a reasonable state of mind.

    PAUL KING: Look, he is obviously stressed and upset about the whole thing. I think it has all taken him by surprise, but he is coping.

    KAREN BARLOW: Paul King is concerned about media reporting of Mark Standen.

    PAUL KING: I would ask that those people refrain from making comments and remind everybody that at this particular time he has a presumption of innocence and he is entitled to be dealt with in the criminal justice system exactly the same way as anyone else.

    MARK COLVIN: Barrister Paul King ending that report from Karen Barlow. 


    Addittional reading File 6.

    I knew he had a gambling problem, admits Standen's boss