A key target of two Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) organised crime investigations, code-named Operations Lightning and Lithium, conducted in conjunction with the Queensland and New South Wales Police Drug Squads, was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in the Supreme Court of Queensland last Thursday for his involvement in the production and trafficking of methylamphetamine and the supply of the precursor chemical, pseudoephedrine.
Robert Wing Fong Chan, aged 74, pleaded guilty to 15 indictments and the trafficking charge was declared to be a “serious violent offence”, meaning that Chan must serve at least 80% of his sentence in custody.
Chan initially came to the CCC’s attention in Operation Lightning when evidence was obtained that he had procured another target to produce methylamphetamine and had supplied precursor chemicals and glassware for the purpose, in exchange for 50 per cent of the product. Immediately upon the closure of Operation Lightning, the CCC commenced Operation Lithium focussing directly upon Chan’s illegal drug activities. As a result of evidence obtained in this investigation, it was alleged that Chan was the primary organiser for the movement between New South Wales and Queensland of 9 kilograms of a precursor chemical called ContacNT at a wholesale price of $35,000 per kilogram. All 9 kilograms were seized during the operation. ContacNT is a medication manufactured in China containing pseudoephedrine and can be used as a precursor chemical in the manufacture of methylamphetamine.
This was the first occasion on which ContacNT had been seized by a law enforcement agency in Queensland.
As a result of Operation Lithium, Chan’s wife, Hung Ha Lau and an alleged courier, Anthony George Hundric, were both sentenced to three years imprisonment in New South Wales for their involvement in supplying commercial quantities of ContacNT.
The CCC’s Acting Executive Director, Crime, Mr Michael Scott, said the sentence should act as a deterrent for those who are engaging in high level illegal drug activity.
“Our message to anyone involved in the importation, production and distribution of illicit drugs is simple: we will continue to work in partnership with our Queensland and interstate colleagues to locate and arrest those responsible for the manufacture and distribution of drugs, wherever that occurs”, Mr Scott said.
“This court outcome has resulted in the incarceration of a high level organised crime figure for a decade and is a resounding victory in the fight against the proliferation of highly addictive dangerous drugs in our community.”
The CCC remains committed to keeping Queensland safe by investigating those criminal networks, markets and commodities of greatest risk to the people of Queensland.
ENDS
