Qantas admits baggage handler sacked, others under investigation

SYDNEY - A Qantas baggage handler has been sacked and an undisclosed number of his colleagues are under investigation over a cocaine smuggling operation, the national flag carrier said yesterday.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has alleged that one airport contact led a team of handlers that were paid $A300,000 ($NZ323,589) to smuggle 9.9kg of cocaine packed in a suitcase past Customs in October last year.

The airline said in a statement that it had stood down the baggage handler last week while it investigated the worker's alleged role in the alleged drug importation syndicate.

Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon said that investigations into the alleged drug smuggling at the airport were continuing in cooperation with authorities.

"At this stage we are concentrating our investigations on a small number of baggage handlers," Mr Dixon said in the statement.

Qantas says the baggage handlers worked in small teams, but was unable to confirm reports they are grouped in gangs of six.

The sacked baggage handler's link to the syndicate was allegedly through former Balmain rugby league player Les Mara, who is now on the run, an AFP brief tendered to a Central Local Court said today.

From recorded conversations involving Mara and a police informer, the airport contact was working on April 11 and 28, and was on leave from May 17 to May 30, the AFP brief said.

The AFP brief also revealed that the next shipment of cocaine, 30kg due in early May, was aborted after listening devices were discovered by two syndicate members in their homes.

Mara then travelled to Sydney airport on April 28 to meet his contact, named "Tom", and arrange a new date for the importation, according to the AFP brief.

He reported "that the airport team was still keen but any new date would need to be after May 30 as Tom was on leave until that date," the documents said.

The syndicate, which sold 200kg of cocaine last year not linked to the baggage handlers, was planning to import at least 100kg using the airport contacts, the brief said.

Mara, 52, is on the run and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.

Meanwhile, two of 15 men charged over the conspiracy to import 30kg of cocaine using the baggage handlers appeared in Sydney's Central Local Court today.

Former Macquarie Bank director Ian Robert Chalmers and Gold Coast university student Ryan Robert Chandler were refused bail today.

Chalmers, 40, is accused of organising a return business-class Qantas flight to Argentina for alleged drug mule Phillip Gordon Tyler, the court was told.

Chandler, 28, was allegedly used by the drug ring as a courier to take cash from Sydney to South America to pay for the 30kg of cocaine.

Both were remanded in custody to reappear in the same court on August 24 and June 1, respectively.

- AAP