Underworld determine George Marrogi dragged his girlfriend right into a plot to smuggle greater than $50 million of medicine into Australia whereas behind bars for homicide, his lawyer says.
Marrogi, 33, is serving a 32-year time period at Barwon Jail for the daylight killing of Kadir Ors, who was shot useless exterior a Melbourne procuring centre in 2016.
Whereas on remand for that crime, Marrogi enlisted the assistance of his girlfriend Antionetta Mannella, 29, and others to try to maneuver 800 litres of Butanediol from South Australia to Victoria, the County Court docket was instructed on Tuesday.
The person who sourced the Butanediol owed Marrogi $1.5 million and Mannella's function was to assist him get well the debt by arranging for the Butanediol to be bought off by others.
However their plan was foiled when the truck was pulled over by Victoria Police in Horsham on January 24 2022, with solely two out of 4 drums discovered to be carrying Butanediol.
Then, in February, the pair organised for 56kg of methamphetamine and 13kg of heroin to be flown into Melbourne from Thailand, disguised in 27 containers of inexperienced tea and magnets.
The Australian Federal Police estimated the medicine had a road worth of $55 million.
Marrogi and Mannella have pleaded responsible to 2 drug trafficking expenses, one state and one Commonwealth, and confronted a pre-sentence listening to on Tuesday by videolink from jail.
The couple had communicated about their trafficking operations utilizing a covert jail telephone hyperlink that diverted to Mannella from his lawyer's workplace, the court docket was instructed.
A few of the calls have been intercepted by authorities.
"All through these telephone conversations, Marrogi would co-ordinate actions by issuing directions to Mannella, and others, who would then facilitate these directions at Marrogi's behest," prosecutor Samantha Holmes stated.
She stated the couple, who had met by way of Marrogi's late sister Meshilin, used code phrases to debate the trafficking, together with "fish" and "kittens".
"How are the fish going? Did they transfer to the aquarium or not but?" Marrogi requested Mannella, after the medicine arrived in Melbourne from Thailand.
Marrogi's barrister Peter Morrissey SC stated his consumer took full duty for "dragging" his girlfriend into the scheme and that he was "lonely and caught" in a excessive safety jail cell through the offending.
"On this plea, George Marrogi needs to imagine main duty for this offending. He led the co-accused, Mannella, into this offending," he instructed the court docket.
Marrogi accepted he would obtain a heavier sentence than Mannella, Morrissey stated.
"He needs to take that one on the chin," Morrissey stated.
He requested Choose Peter Rozen to make a number of the sentence concurrent along with his present jail time period.
The listening to continues.
Enroll right hereto obtain our day by day newsletters and breaking information alerts, despatched straight to your inbox.