Shoade Cao, 21, of Sunnybank, Do Hyung Lee, 27, of Eight Mile Plains, Francis Vui Jan Lee, 25, of Stafford Heights, and Alice Yun Hsuan Yang, 22, pleaded not guilty in the Brisbane Supreme Court to conspiring to import narcotics between August and December 2004.
The court heard the crew used a similar modus operandi and some of the same people who were involved in the Bali Nine.Commonwealth prosecutor Stephen Hall, who revealed intimate details of the group's organisational structure and planning, said that Cao, Yang and Lee were couriers and allegedly recruited by Do Hyung Lee, or "Korean Danny", for two trips.He said Lee allegedly helped organise another earlier expedition involving two men he had recruited from a Brisbane karaoke club, promising that they would earn $10,000 if they successfully returned to Australia with drugs.That trip was abandoned when the two mules backed out. Sydney man Khanh Thanh Ly, jailed last December for conspiring to import heroin, yesterday told how he became involved in the heroin trade through former school friend Myuran Sukumaran, who is now on death row after his arrest as one of the Bali Nine.Ly helped organise drug mules in Australia and drove them around Sydney after the successful October 2004 operation.Mr Hall said that although Ly's last trip in December 2004 proved unsuccessful the four were still co-conspirators as they had travelled to Bali and had agreed to import the drugs.Mr Hall said the ringleaders told them to buy baggy clothes to conceal their body shape.Convicted drug smuggler Khanh Thanh Ly told the Queensland Supreme Court that one of the gang's ringleaders, Hong Viet Luong, had contacted him after the Bali arrests and told him he was "getting out'' of Australia.Ly, who was sentenced to seven years' jail in December for conspiring to import drugs as part of the syndicate, is giving evidence against four other accused drug smugglers.
Do Hyung Lee, 27; Francis Lee, 25; Shaode Cao, 21; and Alice Yang, 22, have all pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring with Hong Viet Luong and Bali Nine ringleaders Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan and others to import heroin into Australia. Cross-examination of Ly will continue this afternoon. Yesterday the court heard the syndicate that hired the so-called Bali Nine drug smugglers allegedly organised at least three drug-running trips to the Indonesian island before the nine were arrested. Commonwealth prosecutor Stephen Hall told the jury that three trips to Bali involving drug-running conspiracies were made in 2004.
Mr Hall said it would be alleged the first trip might or might not have been successful, the second resulted in large quantities being brought back to Australia, while the third was aborted because the heroin supply fell through. He said Danny Lee, known as "Korean Danny" was a recruiter in the drugs operation while the other three were couriers. Mr Hall said Danny Lee frequented JJ's Karaoke Lounge in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley entertainment district, where he met two young Brisbane men, Bozidar Ristic and Farhud Gujari, in August 2004. He told them they could make some "quick cash" if they brought something back from overseas. The two men agreed to the venture and Danny Lee later introduced them to Sukumaran, who told them the job involved travelling to Bali and flying back with "stuff" strapped to their bodies. Sukumaran told them not to worry as it had been done before and no one had been caught. Mr Ristic and Mr Gujari flew to Bali in October 2004 with Sukumaran and Khanh Thanh Ly, a Sydney man who is now serving a seven-year sentence for conspiring with Sukumaran and others to import heroin. The court heard Ly had agreed to testify against the accused in return for a reduced sentence. Mr Hall told the jury they would hear two versions of what happened on the first trip. He said Ly would testify that he saw Mr Ristic and Mr Gujari being strapped with drugs in Bali. However, the two Brisbane men would give evidence that they got cold feet as they were in Bali at the same time as Schapelle Corby was arrested for smuggling marijuana and there were many police on the island for the anniversary of the first Bali bombing. The two would testify that the trip organisers allowed them to go home without any drugs.
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