Man jailed for importing $2m meth package sent to wife

Laine Clark | July 26, 2023

Soon after getting married, Morteza Daneshmand helped import drugs worth up to $2 million in a package addressed to his unsuspecting wife.

She now faces the prospect of being “alone in Australia” with Daneshmand at risk of deportation after he was sentenced to seven years in jail, a court has been told.

Crown prosecutor Byron Philp said Daneshmand was motivated by profit when he instructed someone on WhatsApp to send drugs from the UK to his residence in a package addressed to his spouse.

Daneshmand’s wife is not accused of any wrongdoing and has not been charged.

The Australian Border Force seized the package in December 2021 after 1096 grams of pure methamphetamine was discovered concealed in printer ink cartridges.

The wholesale value was between $80,000 and $372,500, with a street value of up to $2 million.

“The defendant was not a passive post box but he was a willing and determined participant,” Mr Philp told Brisbane Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Daneshmand tracked the package and made inquiries about it on at least six occasions, visiting three different FedEx locations.

“The defendant was actively involved in the import from start to finish,” Mr Philp said.

Daneshmand, 37, arrived in Australia as a refugee in 2012 after fleeing Iran because of religious persecution, the court was told.

He is now a permanent resident but not an Australian citizen, defence barrister Chris Wilson said.

“This sentence … will jeopardise his status here. It’s probably safe to say more than jeopardise,” Mr Wilson said.

“The difficulty is returning to Iran is problematic and fraught for him personally so there will be some issues down the track.”

Mr Wilson said his client deeply regretted the “out of character” offending.

“He also jeopardised his wife by involving her. She was unwitting,” he said.

Daneshmand’s wife was now in a very precarious position, Mr Wilson said.

“She had to effectively leave her family to be married to him so that she is now cut off from them,” he said.

The wife was concerned about losing her husband on whom she is financially dependent and “potentially being quite alone in Australia”, the court was told.

She wept throughout her husband’s sentencing on Wednesday.

Justice Soraya Ryan accepted that Daneshmand, who had no criminal history, was remorseful and very worried about his wife.

Justice Ryan said she decided on a “relatively lenient” head sentence after taking into account issues around his likely deportation and distressed wife.

“Your offending is serious. Methamphetamine ruins lives,” she said.

“I have selected that head sentence because of the uncertainty as to your future which I assume will weigh heavily on you.”

Daneshmand pleaded guilty to aiding or abetting the importing of commercial quantities of a border controlled drug.

He was sentenced to seven years in jail with a non-parole period of three-and-a-half years.