An Altona Meadows man jailed for importing more than 200 kilograms of methamphetamines has lost an appeal to stop the confiscation of his home by Australian Federal Police.
Dock worker Patrick Cini and his son Rhys were arrested in 2013 after police found 203 kilograms of ice in the tyres of a tractor-truck on a ship docked at the Port of Brisbane.
The tractor-truck had been imported from China by Patrick Cini’s company. Police removed the drugs and replaced them with dummy packages before letting the ship continue on to Melbourne.
The Cinis collected the tractor-truck and drove it to a Brooklyn factory.
However, fearing the factory could be robbed, they moved the packages to 14 Ayr Street, Altona Meadows, which has been Patrick Cini’s home since 1987.
From there, all but six packages were distributed to other locations before the pair was arrested.
Patrick Cini pleaded guilty to importing a commercial quantity of border-controlled drugs.
The Court of Appeal last week dismissed Cini’s appeal against the seizure of his house.
Justices Phillip Priest, Joseph Santamaria and Stephen Kay said Cini had been incapable of showing that Ayr Street was not used in, or in connection with, unlawful activity.
“On the available evidence, the very reason for relocating the ‘drugs’ to the applicant’s residential property at Ayr Street was to safeguard them against possible theft,” they stated.
“Moreover, it was thought that the move would also help thwart detection by law enforcement authorities. Further, and in that respect, there were features of Ayr Street which made it a preferred location for the storage of illicit drugs.”
