Silk Road forums
Discussion => Shipping => Topic started by: Dingo Ate My Drugs on April 11, 2013, 02:32 am
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http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/canadian-on-drug-charge-extradited-to-qld/story-e6frfkui-1226618044776
Santolla decided he would use his twin brother's passport to flee Australia and return home to Vancouver the day before he was scheduled to be sentenced in Brisbane's Supreme Court.
The only problem for Santolla?
Australian and Canadian authorities were expecting him to flee.
"Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officials had been alerted by Australian authorities that Santolla, who was out on bail for a drug-smuggling charge in that country, might attempt to evade the law and return to Vancouver," a CBSA spokesperson said.
"Through investigations, they found that Santolla's twin brother (Taylor Santolla) had flown out of Australia, but there was no record of his re-entry."
When Santolla stepped off the plane on July 11 last year in Vancouver, he was taken into custody.
Last month, Santolla entered a guilty plea in British Columbia's Richmond Provincial Court to using someone else's passport to enter Canada and was sentenced to time served, a term of six months.
Today, Santolla, 22, who consented to extradition to Australia, is locked up in a British Columbia prison awaiting a return flight to Brisbane where he will be sentenced on the ecstasy smuggling charge.
Santolla's troubles began in 2008 when Australian Customs officers in Sydney intercepted a package in the post from Canada containing a PlayStation game console filled with 3364 ecstasy tablets.
Australian Federal Police planted a listening device in the package, replaced the drugs, and tracked it to an address in Surfers Paradise where Canadian tourists Santolla and Jonathon Bradley Reid, both 18 at the time, and a 20-year-old New Zealand man were heard celebrating when they opened it up.
On July 12 last year, in the Supreme Court in Brisbane, Reid was sentenced to three years' jail for attempted possession of a marketable quantity of unlawfully imported MDMA and methylamphetamine.
Justice Jean Dalton, in sentencing Reid, acknowledged Reid knew nothing about the importation and did not stand to profit, but happened to be at the apartment with Santolla when the package arrived.
So according to this story, a man in Queensland, Australia has been jailed for three years simply for being present when 3,300 MDMA pills arrived in the mail. He didn't even know about the drugs and he didn't intend to sell them, but he still got a prison sentence. How is this possible?
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The article appears to say exactly that :(
Pretty fucking bullshit, the judge acknowledged he:
A: Had nothing to do with the importation
B: Had no knowledge about it
C: Didn't stand to profit in anyway
D: Just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time
You'd think knowing all these facts any sane judge would let him go, yet this poor fucker gets 3 years. Hopefully it's only a couple of months after parole. What the fuck is wrong with the system? This is clearly a miscarriage of justice.
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The article appears to say exactly that :(
Pretty fucking bullshit, the judge acknowledged he:
A: Had nothing to do with the importation
B: Had no knowledge about it
C: Didn't stand to profit in anyway
D: Just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time
You'd think knowing all these facts any sane judge would let him go, yet this poor fucker gets 3 years. Hopefully it's only a couple of months after parole. What the fuck is wrong with the system? This is clearly a miscarriage of justice.
Exactly my thoughts. he was jailed for no reason other than being there when someone's mail arrived. This could happen to anyone.
The Australian legal system is a mess if things like this can happen - This is something you'd expect from Indonesia, Malaysia or China.
Buyers that see this may be hesitant to sent things even to a drop address now... Although smaller quantities wouldn't have jail sentences attached to them. 3,300 pills is beyond what most people on Silk Road would order. The article was probably written to scare people out of importing drugs through the mail.
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was he black??
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Its more likely the stupid reporter got his facts wrong.
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I just spoke to a friend of mine who is a lawyer about this case.
He reckons there is no way the journalist got his facts right, and that even if this really did happen he would get out in a second on appeal, with a good case for compensation for time-served. Intent forms the basis of the charge he got and if the judge acknowledged he had no intent but sentenced him anyway the judge could get in trouble.
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I just spoke to a friend of mine who is a lawyer about this case.
He reckons there is no way the journalist got his facts right, and that even if this really did happen he would get out in a second on appeal, with a good case for compensation for time-served. Intent forms the basis of the charge he got and if the judge acknowledged he had no intent but sentenced him anyway the judge could get in trouble.
If I get some time I might try and find the court documents about the case and have a look into them.
I'd suspect the news article was incorrectly written, and probably done deliberately to scare people. It can't be right that someone is jailed for simply being present when mail arrives when they have no idea about the drugs being delivered in the mail.
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Imagine if I ordered 3000 pills to my workplace. We could all be in gaol together!
Total bullshit.
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Australian Federal Police planted a listening device in the package, replaced the drugs, and tracked it to an address in Surfers Paradise where Canadian tourists Santolla and Jonathon Bradley Reid, both 18 at the time, and a 20-year-old New Zealand man were heard celebrating when they opened it up.
I think a recording of him with his mates jumping for joy, yelling "Fuck Yeah!" and the sound of high fives just MIGHT be a tad incriminating and kinda fucks up one's "plausible deniability" ::)
And Queensland has our harshest drug laws/sentencing (although this must have been a Federal case) I'd prefer to be this guy than the twin who thought he'd be able to shoot through using his twins ID :o uhuh :P
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The article appears to say exactly that :(
Pretty fucking bullshit, the judge acknowledged he:
A: Had nothing to do with the importation
B: Had no knowledge about it
C: Didn't stand to profit in anyway
D: Just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time
You'd think knowing all these facts any sane judge would let him go, yet this poor fucker gets 3 years. Hopefully it's only a couple of months after parole. What the fuck is wrong with the system? This is clearly a miscarriage of justice.
I'm guessing he had a shitty lawyer. Hmm, maybe someone should send that judge a few grams of coke in the mail. I bet he would get 3 years at least.
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Jailing people for using / selling drugs is unfair in a democracy anyway.
Alcohol is more destructive than cannabis or MDMA, yet people who use and sell these drugs go to jail if they are caught, whereas alcohol which is quite addictive is sold at thousands of locations across Australia.
I looked up the Qld Court documents, but couldn't find the case :-(
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Thought they werent allowed to replace drugs? 0_o
And had to substitute with a similar harmless substance... bit hard with pills though..
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I think that's what the article meant. In addition to placing a listening device they also replaced the drugs with something else.
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wtf, bullshit system man, they'r crazy as hell
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He was in the right place at the wrong time......