DRUG COURIERS ORGANISED FROM ACT, COURT TOLD

A Tongan man organised drug couriers to bring cocaine into Australia
by walking through Customs with 1kg parcels strapped to their thighs,
his former girlfriend told the ACT Magistrates Court yesterday.

Inoke Fotu Mafileo, 30, of Narrabundah, is charged with conspiring to
import cocaine.

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions alleges Mafileo
supervised a number of cocaine imports from the United States to
Australia, via the Pacific islands.

Karina Hilton, an engineer at the Australian Defence Force Academy,
told the court that Mafileo had asked her if she would like to be a
courier. She had refused.

Couriers would receive $2000 plus air tickets, accommodation, and
anything they wanted from the gift shop in Fiji, Ms Hilton said.

Fiji had been used as a halfway point to break-up the trip from Los
Angeles to Sydney. Couriers from the US would meet the Australian
couriers in Fiji. Mafileo had told her that he did not like Sydney
airport because 'some of the boys had been busted there'.

Ms Hilton said Mafileo had tried to organise a shipment from Tonga to
Sydney in September last year. He had said container ships were better
because couriers could carry 3kg of cocaine on to a ship then walk off
again, without having to go through Customs.

Ms Hilton said she had given police documents, names, and shipping
details she found in the Narrabundah unit she shared with Mafileo
because, 'I wanted to give evidence to the police because he had
treated me so badly.'

Weeks before his arrest in February, Mafileo had told her some of 'the
boys' had been arrested because 'some little bitch talked'.

Another former girlfriend, Hulita Scarth-Johnson, said Mafileo had
kept cocaine and large sums of money in the homes they had shared. On
a trip to Fiji last year, he had asked her if she would act as a
courier. She refused.

The hearing, before Magistrate Michael Somes, continues
today.

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady