A NARACOORTE woman has faced Mount Gambier Magistrates Court for allegedly trying to import a key precursor drug for making methamphetamine from South Korea to the South East.
The 22-year-old appeared via videolink in custody on a charge of attempting to import a border controlled precursor, namely pseudoephedrine, in a commercial quantity on Monday afternoon.
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions will allege the defendant attempted to import pseudoephedrine in six parcels sent from South Korea and addressed to multiple addresses in Naracoorte.
According to court documents obtained by The Border Watch, the offences are alleged to have occurred between December 1 and January 16.
The woman’s lawyer sought an adjournment in order to await legal aid, which was granted by Magistrate Teresa Anderson.
A bid to transfer the file to Adelaide was supported by the defence counsel and prosecution, which both appeared in court via videolink on Monday.
The woman was remanded in custody and will appear in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on August 17.
The maximum penalty for her charges is 25 years in jail and a fine of more than $1m.
Earlier the same day, Indonesian Customs and Australia Border Force officers announced Bali police had intercepted six packages containing 600,000 pseudoephedrine tablets being sent from South Korea to an address in South Australia during a stopover on the island.
Indonesian Customs and Excise director general Heru Pambudi told a press conference the smuggling attempt, discovered on January 21, was thwarted following a tip from Australian Border Force.
He said agencies had agreed to announce it this week pending an ongoing investigation by the border force department.
“The ABF conveyed the information after receiving intelligence that a package was being sent from South Korea to Australia via Bali containing raw material to produce methamphetamine and MDMA, but was being declared as health food,” Mr Pambudi said.
“We found six boxes that each contained 100 bottles of precursor with the brand Codana.
“Each bottle contains 1000 tablets that contain pseudoephedrine.”
Mr Pambudi said the six boxes, weighing nearly 140kg in total, were sent through a courier service.
He added tests confirmed each of the tablets contained 60mg of pseudoephedrine.
The sale and distribution of pseudoephedrine in Australia requires customers purchasing medications containing the drug to provide a driver’s licence to monitor sales.
The stringent regulations seek to monitor sales and prevent diversion of pseudoephedrine as a precursor for illegal ice manufacture.
