Convicted ... (click title to entry - thank you)
Mark Standen at the Supreme Court.
Photo: Brendan Esposito
A corrupt ex-cop has been convicted over the importation of illegal drugs ("Just the tip of the iceberg", August 12). Headlines have shouted this wrongdoing as if it is shocking and unexpected.
And for this to be in the organisation charged with preventing drug trafficking.
I am not surprised. There are huge profits to be made and Mark Standen was just a middleman. It is a temptation some cannot resist, even those in positions of trust.
We try to stop the drugs and spend about $2.2 billion each year doing so but less than 20 per cent is captured. The high street prices of the drugs means that a user with a desperate need who cannot afford it from his or her own income resorts to dealing, stealing or prostitution. Added to the user's misery is that of his or her family and of anyone who is unfortunate enough to be robbed to pay for the drugs. And there is no guarantee about the safeness of the drug….
Years back Shapelle Corby wanted to try to convince the world she wasn't involved in the drug smuggling between Indonesia and Australia. Then her brother was caught red handed a few years later. There is always this corruption with the entire drug cartel that pays off government and law enforcement providing the venue they want for continued illegal trade.
August 17, 2011 - 2:44AM
Convicted Australian drug smuggler Schapelle Corby will learn on Wednesday if she will have her 20-year sentence reduced further as part of Indonesia's Independence Day celebrations.
Authorities at Bali's Kerobokan Prison have recommended that Corby's jail term be cut by five months.
Corby will learn if her sentence for drug trafficking has been cut during a ceremony at the jail to mark Indonesia's Independence Day.
Renae Lawrence, the only female member of the Bali Nine, is also in line for a sentence cut with authorities having recommended her term be reduced by six months.
The two women had their sentences reduced by similar amounts on Independence Day last year, and by 45 days at Christmas.
Corby, who was sentenced to 20 years in jail after she was caught at Bali's international airport in 2004 with 4.1kg of marijuana in her bodyboard bag, has already had her prison term cut by almost two years….
