Alone inside a northern Sydney storage unit, a man attempted to cut open industrial baking equipment believing it contained over 140kg in heroin imported from Malaysia, a jury has heard.
Sounds allegedly those of power tools were captured by police surveillance devices after Wade Habkouk entered the Hornsby storage unit on February 11, 2021.
The 31-year-old is facing a jury trial in Sydney's Downing Centre District Court over his role in a drug importation plot allegedly headed by his brother Guy Habkouk to bring more than 250kg of pure heroin into the country.
Wade Habkouk has pleaded not guilty to one charge of attempting to possess about 143kg of pure heroin hidden in a piece of industrial baking equipment known as a vertical mixer.
Crown prosecutor Neha Evans told the jury on Monday that Guy Habkouk had flown to Thailand in March 2020, nine months before the two vertical mixers landed in Sydney on a cargo flight from Kuala Lumpur.
Soon after its arrival, Australian Border Force officers opened two vertical mixers to find lead boxes containing over 900 individual packets of heroin, the jury heard.
In her evidence, ABF officer Lucy Warren said she and her colleagues were able to open the devices and access the drugs using screwdrivers.
Ms Warren said on December 23, 2020, she saw white powder in the shipment, analysed the material and sent the parcels to the Australian Federal Police as a "suspected heroin" importation.
Earlier on Monday, Ms Evans told the jury that one mixer was sent to Wade Habkouk while the other, delivered to a Greenacre removalist, was not picked up by anybody.
Just over a week before Wade Habkouk allegedly attempted to extract the drugs, his brother contacted a security firm in Victoria to purchase an RFD tracer which could detect surveillance devices.
While at the storage unit on February 10 and 11, 2021, Wade Habkouk was seen with a black hard case prosecutors allege contained the tracer.
The construction boss also visited two hardware stores on February 11 before police listening devices captured the sound of power tools from the storage unit, the jury heard.
This vertical mixer was later found cut open in a truck belonging to another man, Ms Evans said.
The drugs were gone however, having been earlier seized by the AFP who reconstructed the vertical mixers in a controlled operation where the shipment was sent on to see who would pick it up.
"He’s realised there's actually no heroin in this. The jig is up so to speak,” said Ms Evans.
While agreed facts presented to the jury do not dispute there was a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug inside the vertical mixer, the jury will have to determine whether he knew or could suspect what was inside that piece of equipment when Wade Habkouk opened it.
Ms Evans argued that the construction boss was "reckless as to what was contained within the parcel".
"He was aware of a substantial risk that the substance in the parcel was a prohibited drug and in circumstances known to him it was unjustifiable for him to take that risk," she said.
Defence barrister Thomas Jones did not make any opening submissions.
The trial continues before Judge William Fitzsimmons on Tuesday.
The case against Guy Habkouk is ongoing in the Downing Centre Local Court and no criminal findings have been made against him.
