Supplied: AFP
)Seven men are on trial in Western Australia's Supreme Court accused of involvement in the importation into Geraldton of 1.2 tonnes of methamphetamine, worth an estimated $160 million.
The men were arrested after bags of the drugs were seized by police after they were offloaded from a boat, which had allegedly met up with another vessel about three hundred nautical miles off the Mid West city in December 2017.
Stephen Baxter is one of the men, accused of trying to possess the drugs.
Crown prosecutor Heath Barklay QC told the court the other six men — Jabour Lahood, Patrick Bouhamdan, Peter Harb, Serupepeli Rasaubale, Christos Cafcakis and Khalid Elia Kaena — were alleged to have been involved in the importation of the drug itself, which involved two boats meeting off the coast of Geraldton to transfer the drug.
ABC News: Nicolas Perpitch
)Mr Barklay told the court police watched some of the accused men unload almost 60 packages of methamphetamine — each weighing about 25 kilograms — within eight minutes.
If the drug was sold in one-kilogram lots, its value would have been $160 million.
He said police had been watching the operation unfold and the men on the boat and on the ground were "caught red-handed".
The other accused men oversaw the operation from Sydney, he said.
Those men — Mr Lahood and Mr Harb — are alleged to have had management roles in the operation according to the prosecution and should therefore be liable not only for their own actions but the actions of those specifically importing the drug.
ABC News: Jessica Hayes
)In his opening address, Mr Barklay drew on what three men who were involved in the operation were expected to testify when they appear as witnesses in the trial.
The men cannot be identified for legal reasons.
Mr Barklay said the story of the December importation started five months earlier, in July, with a similar operation that was sucessful.
That was when a boat, called the Valkoista, was purchased for $351,000 which was used in both the July importation and the one in December.
Defence argues some of accused 'unreliable sources'
Two of the defence lawyers of the seven accused men began their opening remarks on Tuesday afternoon, with the rest to continue on Wednesday.
The lawyer defending Mr Bouhamdan said she would argue two of the men due to give evidence would be unreliable sources.
ABC News: Jessica Hayes
)She said the prosecution would rely heavily on the evidence of these men, to whom she said truth was an "absolute stranger".
She said their word should be treated as "garbage" and reminded the jury that there was no charge before them regarding the first drug importation that is alleged to have happened in July 2017.
She told the jury they must not use the July example to find the men guilty.
The defence lawyer for Mr Cafcakis said no-one had discussed with his client the Valkoista would meet another ship and take on a load of methamphetamine.
He also said the prosecution raised no mention of Mr Cafcakis when speaking about the July importation.
He said there was so much more to the story than what jurors had heard from the crown prosecutor.
At the beginning of the trial Justice Michael Corboy said that in effect seven trials were being conducted as one and the verdicts did not have to be the same for each of the accused.
All seven men have denied the allegations against them.
The trial is expected to run for several months.
