GERMAN DRUG TRAFFICKER IMPRISONED

A German medical student was sentenced to five and a half years' jail
yesterday for his part in smuggling ecstasy tablets worth more than
$300,000 into Perth.

Peter Schubert, 34, admitted in the West Australian Supreme Court to
importing 513 of the 1,796 grams of ecstasy seized by police at Perth
airport on March 30 this year.

"You and three other persons...were each wearing a girdle beneath your
clothing, and inside each girdle there were six socks containing (a total
of 6,007) tablets," Justice Henry Wallwork said before sentencing Schubert.

"Some young people have their lives ruined by these drugs and, of course,
their families also suffer greatly from the results of their drug abuse."

At a street value of about $50 per tablet, the ecstasy was estimated to be
worth more than $300,000.

Schubert, who will be eligible for parole after 30 months, was offered
about $8,400 by a friend of his 21-year-old wife to bring the drugs into
Australia from Amsterdam.

The court heard at the time the fifth-year medical student was desperate
for money to support his wife and 18-month-old son.

Australian Federal Police arrested Schubert at the airport, along with
fellow accused Monika Jezowski, 32, Linda Diefenbach, 31, and 35-year-old
Jorge Lindke.

Jezowski pleaded guilty earlier this month to the trafficking offence, and
will be sentenced in the Supreme Court on August 28.

The other two Germans will plead to similar charges at the Supreme Court on
September 1.

Justice Wallwork said if it had not been for Schubert's early plea of
guilty and cooperation with police, he would have been sentenced to nine
years' imprisonment.

Checked-by: Richard Lake