LUCK RUNS OUT FOR HEROIN'S MR BIG

The Mr Big of the drug trade, the man who is alleged to brought in half a
billion dollars' worth of heroin over the years, was jailed for 12 years
yesterday.

On the surface, 46-year-old Duncan Lam appeared to be just a small-time
businessman running the Golden Kingdom Chinese restaurant in suburban
Kensington and before that doing menial jobs at Palm Beach Golf Club and
restaurants in Chinatown.

The reality was that he was the National Crime Authority's number one
target. Law enforcement authorities believed that over a 15-year period,
the Hong Kong-born migrant, whose real name is Duncan Sak Cheung Lam, had
shipped and air freighted more than half a tonne of heroin into Australia
with a street value of more than $500 million.

And for Federal and NSW police, he was one of the new "Mr Bigs" of
Australian organised crime. His global drug connections stretched from
southern China to Hong Kong while his distribution network in this country
was national.

Critically, in his rise to the top, he forged strong links with the inner
circle of the local Sydney crime bosses.

Lam, who has a history of getting out of tight situations, finally ran out
of luck yesterday.

Nicknamed "Big Nose Cheung", Lam's elusiveness has long frustrated
Australian law enforcement authorities.

The eighth of 16 children born into a poor family in Hong Kong, Lam had
been in Australia for only a couple of years before coming to police notice
in 1980.

In 1985 he was observed delivering Chinese food to two women in a Randwick
motel. The two, who had just brought in 10 kilograms of heroin in ceramic
plates, were arrested and a warrant was issued for Lam's arrest.

For 15 months Lam hid in a garage in Bondi Junction. He was finally
arrested in March 1987 and, after spending 18 months on remand, when the
matter came to court in 1988 Justice Roden ordered his acquittal.

Almost a decade later, after months of intensive investigation, officers
from Operation Coltsfoot discovered 78 kilograms of heroin concealed among
800 cartons of tinned pineapple shipped from southern China. It was NSW's
largest heroin seizure, worth $78 million.

One of the first people arrested was Lam's cohort, Leung Yiu Man. Leung
agreed to co-operate and undertook to lead police to Lam. The Federal
police were closing in.

One a night of May, 1997, Lam was due to meet Leung at the Dragon Chamber
restaurant in Ashfield.

Leung, who was fully wired up, fled out the back door and Lam, who was
observing this from a distance from the restaurant, also fled.

Neither was seen for some years. Leung was arrested by the Thai police last
year over a passport matter and has since been found guilty of the heroin
in the pineapple tins. He is due to be sentenced next month.

As for Lam, he was finally arrested in February 1999, and charged over $40
million worth of heroin found in the boot of a car.

When he came to trial just before the Olympics, after three days of
deliberation the jury was discharged when it failed to reach a decision.
The Herald understands that the majority was for acquittal.

This time around, Lam was not so lucky, although when it came to sentencing
yesterday, Judge Walter Holt said that he was unable to decide whether Lam
or another person, who is yet to be tried, was the kingpin in the organisation.

The jailing of Lam is a major coup for police, who have also put away one
of the country's biggest heroin distributors, Duong Van Ia.

In 1997 the Heraldnamed both Duncan Lam and Duong Van Ia as the Mr Bigs of
the heroin trade.

The sixth of eight brothers who sailed to Australia from Vietnam in the
mid-'70s, in Cabramatta Duong was known as Uncle Six.

During 1996 Duong, who by trade was a humble pork barbecuer, managed to put
$94 million through Sydney's Star City casino. He was banned by the Police
Commissioner, Mr Peter Ryan, in 1997 for suspected illegal activities.

As Lam was taken out of court yesterday he nodded to a couple sitting at
the back of the court. One was his current de facto, Amy Huang. The other
was former tax office employee Dennis Ngui. In 1998 Ngui pleaded guilty to
21 illegal accesses to the Tax Office mainframe and was fined $1,000 and
given a good behaviour bond.

When Ngui's matter came to court there was no mention of the access he made
into Lam's file. At that time Lam's wife was in dispute with the Australian
Taxation Office for more than $1 million for "unexplained earnings".

While Ngui was working at the Tax Office, Telecom records show that Lam
authorised and paid for the delivery of a phone to Ngui.