Top NSW cop gets 16 years for drugs plot

Greed

DISGRACED crime fighter Mark Standen will spend at least 16 years behind bars for his role in a drug importation conspiracy plot.

The former assistant director of investigations at the NSW Crime Commission was in August found guilty by a Supreme Court jury of plotting to import 300kg of pseudoepherine. He will not be eligible for parole until June 2024, with Justice Bruce James taking into account that Standen has been in custody since his arrest in June 2008.

He was also convicted of taking part in the supply of the supply of 300kg of the substance, used in the manufacture of the illicit drugs speed and ice.

Justice Bruce James said in his sentencing remarks this morning that Standen had conspired with his informant, drug trafficker James Kinch and food wholesaler Bakhos "Bill" Jalalaty from between January 2006 and June 2008 to import the substance.

The court heard the drugs were to be placed inside a shipping container filled with rice that would travel to Australia from Pakistan.

Justice James said that Standen "used his personal contacts (including those working at Customs) to make enquiries for the purpose of ascertaining whether the shipment of rice had come to the attention of authorities."

The court heard it was an "abuse" of his role at the NSW Crime Commission. "One of his duties (at work) was to investigate drug trafficking, the criminal conduct of the very sort in which he engaged," Justice James.

Standen's two brothers were at Darlinghurst courthouse to hear his fate this morning.

The Judge described Standen's relationship his informant Kinch as one which "irretrievably" corrupted him. His sentence followed a five-month trial that began in March this year.

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