A Norwegian diver has been sentenced to almost 10 years in prison over an 80-kilogram cocaine haul in the Port of Newcastle.<\/p>\n
Newcastle District Court heard Jon Birger Karlsen attempted to import the cocaine hidden in the hull of Cyprus-registered bulk carrier MV Stalo.<\/p>\n
It was berthed in Newcastle, alongside one of the city’s grain terminals, on January 25, 2023.<\/p>\n
Karlsen and his co-accused Johan-Martinius Halvorsen, 35, were part of an international crime syndicate which flew him into Brisbane.<\/p>\n
Both men pleaded guilty to attempting to possess a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug.<\/p>\n
Spotted in practice<\/p>\n
The syndicate bought Karlsen expensive scuba gear and aquatic scooters before sending him to Newcastle Harbour to retrieve the cocaine.<\/p>\n
Judge Roy Ellis said the pair practised their retrieval, but were spotted.<\/p>\n
“On that day, unfortunately for them, they were spotted by the captain of a passing ferry,” Judge Ellis said.<\/p>\n
“In any event, at that point in time police had already removed the cocaine.”<\/p>\n
The court was told Australian Federal Police had removed the drugs after getting a tip off.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A master on the Stockton ferry spotted Karlsen and his co-accused as they practised retrieving the drugs. (ABC Newcastle: Robert Virtue)<\/p>\n
When the men made their attempt AFP officers were waiting, shining lights in the water before the men fled.<\/p>\n
Aquatic scooters for retrieval<\/p>\n
Judge Ellis said they spent almost $60,000 on the underwater scooters and scuba gear.<\/p>\n
“Each was given a free ticket to fly out to Australia,” the judge said.<\/p>\n
“Both participated in the purchase of two sub scooters and both were involved in purchasing scuba gear.<\/p>\n
“His [Karlsen’s] expertise was required to remove the drugs.<\/p>\n
“It had a significant weight, in total it is 80 kilos, and you can well understand why the need for scooters in order to get there quickly underwater.”<\/p>\n
The divers were tasked with moving an item from a sea chest attached to the undercarriage of the MV Stalo. (ABC Newcastle: Cecilia Connell)<\/p>\n
Public defender Peter Krisenthal said his client [Karlsen] was not aware of the criminal nature of the work.<\/p>\n
Judge Ellis was sceptical.<\/p>\n
“They knew it was going to entail them in underwater work,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It entailed them moving some item from the sea chest attached to the undercarriage of the boat.<\/p>\n
“I accept they didn’t know the quantity of the drug, but really \u2014 could there be any other inference other than retrieving something that was brought illegally.”Threats and assistance\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Krisenthal told the judge his client had assisted federal police and had been attacked and threatened while awaiting sentencing.<\/p>\n
He said his client’s family in Norway had also been subjected to threats.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The MV Stalo was docked alongside the Carrington grain terminal in Newcastle. (ABC Newcastle: Robert Virtue)<\/p>\n
Judge Ellis questioned whether Karlsen was motivated by threats or financial gain.<\/p>\n
“In terms of being pressured to do it, it seems to me that it is a bit hard to walk away from the idea that financial gain had to be a significant factor,” Judge Ellis said.<\/p>\n
He said a sentence of 12 years would have been appropriate for Karlsen, without any reductions.<\/p>\n
Judge Ellis applied a 15 per cent discount, taking into account assistance to police and threats he had received.<\/p>\n
That shaved just over two years off the sentence, equating to a maximum term of nine years and 11 months.<\/p>\n
A non-parole period was set at 4 years and 11 months, meaning Karlsen will be eligible for parole on Christmas Eve 2027.<\/p>\n
That is due to time already served.<\/p>\n
Halvorsen was sentenced in March to 12 years jail with a non-parole period of\u00a05 years, 9 months.<\/p>\n
The 35-year-old will be eligible for parole in October 2028.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Norwegian diver has been sentenced to almost 10 years in prison over an 80-kilogram cocaine haul in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,42895,20108,51862,51859,51858,51860,44,51861,40205],"class_list":["post-64897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cocaine","tag-drug-smuggling","tag-johan-martinius-halvorsen","tag-jon-birger-karlsen","tag-mv-stalo","tag-newcastle-cocaine-divers","tag-news","tag-port-of-newcastle","tag-sentencing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}