A Mexican national who claimed he was visiting family in Australia promised his wife and girlfriend he'd buy multiple houses when he came home.
But Juan Manuel Plaza Lopez is still in Melbourne nearly four years later - locked up after he was revealed to be a major methamphetamine trafficker.
A logistics engineer, he was behind the import of more than 530kg of methamphetamine from Mexico to Melbourne, stuffed inside frozen cowhides in August 2019.
He was found guilty of trafficking a commercial quantity of methamphetamine by a Victorian County Court jury.
Plaza Lopez, 45, arrived in Melbourne in late July 2019, ahead of the shipment's arrival on August 9 or 10 that year.
Prosecutors had argued Plaza Lopez supervised and was involved in packing the consignment in Mexico, supervised loading into a shipping container, made the necessary shipping arrangements and was present to oversee it's involvement.
They also put to jurors that Plaza Lopez had planned to be involved in removing or overseeing removal of the drugs from the cowhides.
Plaza Lopez was involved with finding a warehouse to store the drugs, and discussed hiring forklifts and other lifting equipment.
About a month after his arrival he spoke to his son, promising to buy him a PlayStation and more Xbox games when he returned to Mexico.
"As soon as I get there we'll buy the house," he told his son.
"Is it for real?" the boy replied and Plaza Lopez responded: "Yes, it is for real".
Plaza Lopez made similar promises to his wife and girlfriend about buying houses, and also about setting up businesses.
Prosecutor Ruth Champion said the total amount of financial gain he was expecting to receive was unknown, but "the reward would not have been insignificant".
Plaza Lopez's lawyer Nicholas Goodfellow said his family including his wife, their two adult daughters and his teenage son remained supportive despite the difficulty of not having contact with him.
"It is simply not possible financially for them to come to Australia, even on a single occasion, let alone make it a regular situation," he said.
Mr Goodfellow said while the drug concealment was sophisticated, the same could not be said for his client's role.
Plaza Lopez's name was littered throughout correspondence, he travelled to Australia on his own passport and used his full name in communications.
"He never sought to avoid authorities or engage in any type of encrypted communications," Mr Goodfellow said.
"There was no attempt to conceal his connection to the shipping container."
Plaza Lopez will be sentenced at a later date by Judge Frank Gucciardo.
