WHEN the former Crime Commission investigator Mark Standen and his alleged co-conspirator were discussing the delivery of a container, just weeks before their arrest in June 2008, Mr Standen said it was ''like chemicals and things, like, um, crystal''.

The businessman Bill Jalalaty added: ''The product itself … won't do anything; when you mix it with something else then it becomes something else.''
Standen & Jalalaty

''They're making something else; whatever, we do not know,'' Mr Standen replied.
The intercepted conversation was played at Mr Standen's Supreme Court trial yesterday. He is facing charges of conspiring to import pseudoephedrine and pervert the course of justice and of taking part in the supply of 300 kilograms of pseudoephedrine.

If ''they find this one'' it would be ''world news'', the pair agreed as they were discussing the delivery of the container of rice, which the prosecution alleges they believed would contain the drug precursor.

Mr Jalalaty said: ''[The] only way they can catch us is if they -''

''Open it,'' Mr Standen said, completing the sentence.

''Unload the whole container and check the bags,'' Mr Jalalaty added.

''Unless they have a tip-off … we're right,'' Mr Jalalaty said earlier.

''There's nothing happening … Don't even tell me,'' Mr Standen replied.

Mr Standen said he wanted to know if ''there's a pay check coming'' and talked about expecting between $100,000 and $300,000, which would solve his financial problems.

He discussed having the money paid to his brother in Hong Kong because ''they'll never be able to … check all his stuff'', then asking his brother to ''buy me out of the [family] house'', so his brother could send him the money in Australia.

The trial continues.