Canadian Mark Clermont was charged with importing $255-million worth of drugs inside the barrel of a road roller.
Almost five years ago this spring, Mark Clermont landed in Australia to start a new life.
He once was a strength coach in a chic health club and with the Canadian Football League's Montreal Alouettes, but by the time he left Canada, had been through considerable personal upheaval.
He ran into financial problems and divorced not long after the birth of his son.
He started a company in Sydney, met a woman, made plans to return to Montreal to open a bed and breakfast.
Then he got arrested.
On Wednesday, the 36-year-old Mr. Clermont received a life sentence with no chance for parole for 20 years.
The judge said Mr. Clermont played a key role in a major cocaine and "meth" trafficking scheme that made headlines because the smugglers hid the narcotics in a road roller.
"General deterrence is a very important part of this sentence. … Clermont was not addicted to drugs. He was doing this for financial gain and his own greed," District Court Acting Judge Anthony Garling said.
A co-accused, a 35-year-old Canadian named Mathieu Horobjowsky, received a 20-year sentence with no parole for 13 years.
The pair had ostensibly relocated to Australia to try their luck at the heavy machinery import business, but the trial judge concluded their sole intent was criminal.
The street value of the drugs, initially announced as $245-million (Cdn.), was revised in the ruling to $255-million.
Police discovered 85.5 kilograms of pure cocaine and 192.9 kilograms of pure methylamphetamine, the judgment said.
Although the court found Mr. Clermont did not mastermind the operation, which is believed to have been co-ordinated in Canada, he was close to those who did, and was a significant enough player to be entrusted with its execution.
His family and acquaintances are finding the events hard to fathom.
Mr. Clermont's father, Gilles, said his son has an unblemished past. "He's never had a parking ticket … he's never been into drugs. He's a good citizen," he said in an interview.
He said Australian authorities are trying to make an example of his son despite circumstantial evidence.
The sentence is expected to be appealed.
Mr. Clermont was a part-time member of the Alouettes' conditioning staff from 2007 to 2009 – he appears in official team photographs. The team won the Grey Cup championship in his final season. Within months, he departed for Australia.
Club officials remember Mr. Clermont, one of many trainers and fitness consultants to work with the players, as serious-minded and ambitious.
Strength training also brought him into contact with athletes from other sports. He helped former NHL goaltender Pascal Leclaire recover from injury in 2007.
At that point, Mr. Clermont was affiliated with Club Sportif MAA, a health club on Montreal's Peel Street that has links with the Alouettes and other teams.
Mr. Leclaire, who retired because of injury in 2012 and is now a player agent, said he worked with Mr. Clermont for parts of two years, but lost track of him in 2009.
"He came out for dinner with me and my friends a few times. I never would have guessed he could get caught up in something like this," he said an interview. "He's a really friendly, nice guy. He had a fair bit of experience around professional athletes; he was a really good trainer."
His prosperity was fleeting.
According to public records, the province put a lien on Mr. Clermont's car because he owed more than $18,000 in taxes.
Tax authorities obtained a warrant to search a property in Montreal's Notre-Dame-de-Grace neighbourhood and seize assets.
He married in 2006, but was separated and believed to be jobless by the time he went to Australia.
His father said he was by all appearances trying to start a company in a new country, sometimes getting in touch for business tips.
According to the court decision, Mr. Clermont and Mr. Horobjowsky arrived in Sydney on April 23, 2010, on short-term tourist visas.
They registered a company, Clermont & Horobjowsky Pty. Ltd., to import floorboards, tractors and forklifts.
Authorities said it was a front while they set the stage for a smuggling operation bankrolled by a kingpin in Canada known as "Big D."
The judgment said "Clermont was a key organizer of the importation and his role was critical."
The court said Mr. Clermont travelled to Canada and Mexico to set up "the Australian end" of the operation, alleging he provided SIM cards to Mr. Horobjowsky so they could communicate with encrypted BlackBerry phones.
Mr. Clermont used the Anonymouse online service to eliminate any tracks on the Internet, set up e-mail accounts with bogus identities, and deleted messages as soon as they were viewed, the judgment said.
At the same time, Mr. Clermont was planning for the future, according to Crown evidence.
He and his Australian girlfriend, Jessie Gough, discussed opening a bed and breakfast in Montreal.
They inquired about renting a "deluxe" condo in the Eastern Townships ski resort of Sutton, where Mr. Clermont's mother lives, about 90 minutes outside Montreal.
The prosecution also said Mr. Clermont wanted to buy a property worth more than $1-million in the Sydney suburb of Terrey Hills – even though he could not fulfill financial promises to his Australian business partners (who were cleared of wrongdoing).
"The offender had no independent means of income, his business was not making a profit … financial gain from the sale of the drugs was the only potential source of income," Judge Garling said.
The Australian Federal Police said the operation that led to the arrests of the Canadians, codenamed Pendine, began in 2010 as an investigation into money laundering.
By the fall of 2012, police and customs agents were tracking a suspicious container shipment of heavy machinery from China, which included a 20-tonne road roller, the type used to compact gravel and asphalt.
Cocaine and meth were concealed in the machine's front roller under a lead lining to thwart X-ray scans by Australian customs, Judge Garling's ruling said.
"It was a very clever concealment," the judge said in his decision.
By the time police raided a warehouse where the road roller had been stowed, the drug had been transferred to bags.
In November, 2012, Mr. Clermont was arrested in Avalon, a suburb north of Sydney, and charged with trafficking.
He has remained behind bars ever since.
His paternal grandfather died two weeks ago and the funeral service was held three days before Mr. Clermont heard that he would spend at least the next two decades in custody.
Judge Garling said in his sentencing that he knew there would be family hardship for Mr. Clermont, but the amount of drugs involved in the case was such that "the only sentence which could be imposed is one of full-time imprisonment and an extremely lengthy sentence."
Tu Thanh Ha