DRUG DEALER USED CROWN TOWERS AS HQ, COURT TOLD

A man who promoted and facilitated the supply of large amounts of
high-grade heroin into Melbourne directed his operations from the
opulent Crown Towers Hotel, where he posed as a high-roller casino
gambler, a court heard yesterday.

It was alleged Ko Kong Tong, 45, regularly came from Hong Kong to
Melbourne where he formed bridges between overseas suppliers,
Australian importers and local wholesalers and buyers.

A prosecutor, Brent Young, told Melbourne Magistrates Court that Mr
Tong was the pivotal centrepiece of a group of casino gamblers who
were all "risk-takers, living life on the edge".

Mr Young said that for Mr Tong and his four co-accused the casino was
the "hub for their lives ... lives that were, very much, a gamble".

In his opening to a contested committal hearing, Mr Young said most
incriminating evidence against four of the accused came from
translated intercepts and listening devices placed on telephones and
in several rooms in Crown Towers.

Mr Young said that all of the accused - Mr Tong, Vinh Lac Loa, 33, Le
Phan Vuong, 46, Phong Van Tran, 35, Van Hung Nguyen, 36, - knew they
could suffer disastrous losses or experience "potential riches beyond
belief".

A sixth accused Dat Thinh Ong, 46, of Kenney Street, Sunshine,
reserved his plea when sent for trial in February on a charge of
trafficking heroin.

Mr Young said: "They all knew that, because they were such big
gamblers and because they were such risk takers, others might well be
curiously watching over their shoulders."

Mr Young said the "biggest gamble that the defendants were taking,
occupying almost every waking moment of long days and even longer
nights, was dedicated towards the receipt and distribution of large
quantities of high-grade heroin into Melbourne".

The "unwanted observers and listeners" the defendants feared were
officers from the National Crime Authority and the Australian Federal
Police, he said.

Ms Vuong and Mr Ong assisted Mr Tong, who he said rarely strayed from
the casino, in his various dangerous liaisons.

Mr Young told the court that when Mr Tong visited Melbourne he stayed
in quite opulent surroundings in the Crown Towers Hotel.

He said: "He was frequently bored to death in his Crown Towers' rooms,
perched high above Melbourne, working his way progressively through
the, no doubt, well-stocked mini-bar."

Mr Young alleged the real mission of Mr Tong was as the promoter and
facilitator of the supply of high-grade heroin into Melbourne and that
a necessary ingredient of that role often involved waiting for
something to happen.

He alleged Mr Tong could very publicly gamble and give the appearance
to the world that he was a wealthy high roller, while privately he
planned and schemed with others the next heroin deal.

The court heard the six, including Mr Ong, were charged over two
shipments of heroin, one in June last year and a second, involving
four kilograms of pure heroin, on August 3.

Mr Young alleged that the second shipment of heroin involved placing
the drugs in a car in a car park visible to Mr Tong from his rooms in
the hotel.

He said while Mr Tran was arrested when the drugs were seized by
police, Ms Vuong was more involved in marketing activities and Mr
Nguyen allegedly supplied money for both shipments.

The five who appeared yesterday are charged with trafficking heroin,
while Mr Tong, of Crown Towers Hotel, Mr Loa, of Hong Kong, and Mr
Tran, of Binalong Court, St Albans, are charged with possessing a
prohibited import.

Ms Vuong, of Kenney Street, Sunshine, Mr Nguyen, of Lygon Street,
Carlton, and Mr Tong are also charged with attempting to possess a
prohibited import.

The hearing continues.