A Nigerian refugee who attempted to smuggle $4.2 million worth of meth in treadmills to pay off debts worth $30,000 has been jailed 10 years and six months in Australia.
Joseph Chukwuma, 29, was arrested in February 2015 trying to move more than 16 kilograms of the drug – at about 78 per cent purity – from Sydney airport to Adelaide.
He’d become a drugs courier to pay off money he was lent to set up a business exporting car parts to Nigeria, but was busted by police, The Advertiser reported.
Appearing in the Adelaide District Court, Chukwuma – who was on parole for offences involving dealing cocaine and heroin in 2007 – pleaded guilty to one charge of attempting to possess a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug.
Judge Paul Muscat said the drugs would have been worth millions more if they’d been “cut in terms of purity”.
However, the judge accepted Chukwuma, who had fled Liberia as a child, was only a small player in a larger international drugs ring, delivering the meth to pay off a small part of his debts.
“It is not suggested that you were going to trade in the drugs such as to reap those mind-staggering profits. Someone or others were going to do that.
“Nevertheless, your role was an important one in the chain of collection of and ultimate distribution of a very harmful illicit substance.”
Chukwuma had owed $30,000 to a Nigerian lender for set-up costs his car parts business, from which he never received payments for sales.
Unable to pay back the money, he was pressured by the lender to help deliver the meth.
But the judge said he fact he was on parole for other drugs offences made it more serious.
Chukwuma was sentenced to 10 years, six months in prison, but will be eligible for parole after six-and-a-half, backdated to his arrest date.
