Man jailed after smuggling cocaine in motorcycle parts

Robin Tredrea was today sentenced to 4 years and 6 months’ imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 2 years and 6 months, after pleading guilty in the District Court of South Australia to attempting to possess 162 grams of cocaine that was smuggled into Australia in motorcycle parts.

The drugs were discovered on 19 January 2017 when Australian Border Force officers examined an international post item at the Melbourne Gateway Facility at Melbourne Airport. The parcel was addressed to a fake company in Adelaide called ‘Sanjay Co’, and the contents were declared as ‘RHS piston, motorcycle parts’. The address listed had a mailbox rented by a ‘Santino Patria’.

The parcel, which had been sent from Boston in the United States, had two cylindrical steel tubes with removable sprockets. Within the hollow of the tubes was a quantity of white powder that was found to be 66% pure cocaine.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) then carried out a simulated delivery that resulted in the arrest of Robin Tredrea on 24 January when he tried to pick up the parcel for Sanjay Co, and claimed to be Santino Patria.

Later that day the AFP searched Tredrea’s home, where amongst other things, a counterfeit Italian driver’s licence in the name of Santino Patria was found, along with another six cylindrical steel tubes that had traces of cocaine and Tredrea’s fingerprint.

Also seized was a mobile phone that had images of previous parcels with the same fake address and contents, as well as Western Union money transfer receipts in various names, including ‘Robin Lawrence Tredrea’.

CDPP Media contact: communications@cdpp.gov.au or 02 6206 5708.

Summary of charges:

Robin Lawrence Salem Tredrea was charged with:

• 1 charge of attempting to possess a marketable quantity of an unlawfully imported border controlled drug, namely cocaine, contrary to section 307.6 by virtue of section 11.1 of the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth).