Would that be these baggage handlers that are meant to get an apology...??
A Qantas baggage handler has been sacked and an undisclosed number of his colleagues are under investigation over a cocaine smuggling operation,. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has alleged that one airport contact led a team of handlers that were paid $300,000 to smuggle 9.9kg of cocaine packed in a suitcase past Customs. The sacked baggage handler's link to the syndicate was allegedly through former Balmain rugby league player Les Mara. From recorded conversations involving Mara and a police informer.The AFP brief also revealed that the next shipment of cocaine, 30kg , was aborted after listening devices were discovered by two syndicate members in their homes. Mara then travelled to Sydney airport to meet his contact, named "Tom", and arrange a new date for the importation, according to the AFP brief. The syndicate, which sold 200kg of cocaine last year not linked to the baggage handlers, was planning to import at least 100kg using the airport contacts, the brief said. Mara, 52, is on the run and a warrant has been issued for his arrest. Meanwhile, two of 15 men charged over the conspiracy to import 30kg of cocaine using the baggage handlers appeared in Sydney's Central Local Court.. Former Macquarie Bank director Ian Robert Chalmers and Gold Coast university student Ryan Robert Chandler were refused bail. Chalmers, 40, is accused of organising a return business-class Qantas flight to Argentina for alleged drug mule Phillip Gordon Tyler, the court was told. Chandler, 28, was used by the drug ring as a courier to take cash from Sydney to South America to pay for the 30kg of cocaine.
