He got WAY too Greedy | Australia's MOST Corrupt Cop | Australian Crime Stories

[Music] [Applause] foreign we're here to arrest you for conspiring to import into Australia a commercial quantity a border control precursors do you understand that I'd be kidding me I'm not mate I'm doing this serious do you have no it's not you're now under arrest meet Mark standen he gave it all away for for money for greed Australia's most corrupt cop well he's probably number one standing was the Inside Man the key to a 60 million dollar drug importation for an international cartel the whole process was utterly corrupt investigative reporter Adam Shand asks the big questions what made Mark standen turn to the dark side and discovers a disturbing picture of a man trapped by his own desires he's in the game and in the end there are no rules of the game [Music] when the news broke in 2008 that Mark standen had been arrested in the car park of New South Wales crime commission it was like a tidal wave breaking over Australian law enforcement how could one of the country's most senior cops and Untouchable have gone to the dark side this story embodies all the fears about fighting organized crime today that in going after the big Crooks you risk becoming one yourself [Music] Porter who stumbled under the story quite by accident I was doing an unrelated investigation into Italian mafia and their links with Dutch underworld and Dutch criminals ostensibly trafficking drugs to Australia by the ton at what point did you realize there was a connection to Mark standard when the Australian federal police came to our office and tried to shut down our investigation the editor rang me up and said what the hell tell me why I've got a foyer full of police officers in uniform what have you done and I'm like whoa hang on what have I done I haven't done anything and we worked out very quickly in the five minutes it took them to be escorted up onto level three that it was related to this investigation that I had been running for several months at that point the media raid was led by a team of Australian federal police officers alarmed that Charles Miranda's investigation would tip off a key player in a massive drug smuggling operation to import 300 kilograms of pseudoephedrine used in a manufacture of the drug ice with an ultimate street value of 60 million dollars in the way that they described it at the time was it was the largest and most sensitive police investigation in Australian law enforcement history the key Target of the afp's investigation was Mark standen the assistant director of Investigations at the New South Wales crime Commission you must be employed I was flawed and I knew some of the guys who were being brought into what they kept on referring to as brought in on the joke and that was one of the phrases that the AFP created are you in on the joke yes I'm in on the joke the joke being that one of the top law enforcers in the country was involved in this case it was like okay well let's look at let's look at what he's done what he is going to do and what how we can work together to to suit both our ends you kind of deal with the AFP what was that simply that we would not write any more stories but at some point we wanted to be given a heads up when they were coming towards an arrest in exchange for waiting Miranda was given the inside running on the investigation so I'd mix with the police the undercover guys spent a lot of time with the with the Dutch police you have to imagine this was a huge operation for the Dutch as well the main Dutch cartel were the largest synthetic drug traffickers in the world they were making money almost on par with someone like Pablo Escobar and in the cocaine World they were doing that with synthetic drugs because of the global appetite for uh for their drugs their operation was so extensive they were making these pills in the back of semi-trailers while the semi-trailers were rolling around the uh the the canals of of the Netherlands I don't think they ever considered Mark standen as one of the principals as such of this cartel they probably regarded him more as an asset and what an asset to have if you've got a law enforcer whose the eyes and ears in the law enforcement World in Australia of course stand and wasn't the only Australian asset he was in League with Bill gelatally a Sydney food importer with a legitimate business in a warehouse in Western Sydney the perfect front for a drug importation on this scale the Dutch side the Kingpin was a bloke called luik weirden he was organizing a shipment of rice to come from Pakistan to Sydney it was a dummy run the cartel figured if they could get the rice on its own through Port botany without a hiccup the next shipment would be the real deal pseudoephedrine would simply be scattered through dozens of five kilogram rice bags feedback this seems like it was always doomed to failure but what you've got to remember is the crooks thought they were working under the protection of one of the most powerful cops in the country the crooks didn't realize the AFP were already onto them secretly recording conversations between veridan and jalality who went by the code name Rasheed hello harshit uh we are going to range now I spoke with my friends we are going to range now uh two shipments complete with all the documents and uh so I think within 40 days we have it on the move ment okay let's take stock of who we have so far there's the Dutch connection Luke veridan who's organizing the shipment then we have the local importer Bill gillatley who's going to receive the shipment in Sydney then we have The Insider at the crime Commission mark standen but there's one person who ties all these villains together it's James kinch he's an Irish crook who was The Mastermind of the entire operation and how he turns Mark Stan into the dark side is a fascinating story my name's kinch was an Irishman he built up a substantial criminal record for property and other crimes in the UK he then moved to the Netherlands started work for The Syndicate and after a couple of years he came to Australia as the syndicates representing for Australia and it was not long after that that he got pinched here and standard became involved with him from that on he was arrested and Mark Stanton was part of that arrest in which they questioned him uh extensively and and ended up charging him and he rolled over and said no I'll I'll work for you guys and so kinch accepted standing's offer and became a registered informant for the crime commission all charges against kinch for money laundering and drug trafficking were dropped in return hinch coughed up nine hundred thousand dollars of his illicit profits a contribution to the crime commission's coffers foreign ly three hundred thousand dollars was released back to kinch money that was supposed to be monitored in a controlled operation to see how The Syndicate washed its cash but guess what the 300 Grand disappeared down the plug hole never to be seen again 2004 kench the Informer left Australia a free man for standing and kinch it was the start of a beautiful friendship he actually got Mark to uh to change sides as it were sooner after kinch left Australia he started paying stand and Via bill gilletteley during his time of dealings with James kinch it appears that he obtained about somewhere between three hundred thousand and five hundred thousand dollars cash from James kinch [Music] good morning how are you can you do a um uh electronic transfer for me yep and the name of the person is Mark m-a-r-k yep and the surname is [Music] s-t-a-n-d-e-n-s-t-a-n-d-e-n-d-e standard yep um 5 000 please yep yep can you let me know when you've done that no problem psychologist Dr Stephen Barron used to be an internal investigator for the New South Wales police he knows how cops go bad kinch owned him from the second that he takes money from kinch kinch owns him and it's very hard to have any Integrity if you if you don't own what you have between your legs it belongs to somebody else next the warning signs how Mark standen turned back he had a real reputation for gambling massive amounts of money that just couldn't be funded out of police salaries [Music] [Music] so in 2008 300 kilos of precursor chemical pseudoephedrine was on its way to Sydney courtesy of a network of contacts that Mark Stanton built up as an Untouchable in the crime Commission let's take our story a bit further back what made Mark standen turn to the dark side a bad cops born or made that's upbringing in Sydney's inner West he went to school at Saint Patrick's strathfield it's been reported that he was Keen to join the RAF but instead he joined Australian customs in 1975 straight out of school how would you describe his personality well I always found him a very personable person when I looked at his uh background and I did speak to a lot of people over a number of years what you saw was a very eager young person who wanted to make a hit and by that I mean wanted to catch Crooks wanted to seize drugs wanted to make a name for himself was very enthusiastic about being there but also wanted to do it in a rather flamboyant way [Music] standen's first big career move was to the federal narcotics Bureau then an arm of Customs where his unusual policing methods first came to the attention of authorities standing in a number of other police from the narcotics Bureau had raided one or more homes in the Eastern suburbs and in one of the homes they'd found a relatively small quantity of hash in a few foils in a few foils taken back to the office at the old customs house in Sydney where they sat in a drawer for some weeks it was only a small quantity of drugs not enough to lay charges the New South Wales police were apparently uninterested in taking on the case which meant more paperwork for standing and a second narcotics agent they had to put in a report of seeking approval to destroy and explain why they had to do it and all of that to save that work they decided to flush it down the toilet however in doing that it meant that they had to falsify a number of other records they recorded on the official search of the house that no drugs were found but this did end up in front of the Stuart Royal commission it did end up in front of the Stewart Royal commission and it was all publicly recorded but it wasn't enough to stop Mark standing in his tracks no no it didn't appear well I think it was soon to be a um an indiscretion but not an act of corruption [Music] despite the concern standard kept landing on his feet his next stop was the Australian federal police College in Canberra he talked a good talk and he would become this Larger than Life character going back to the days that he he joined the AFP and uh down there in Barton in Canberra at the police College he was the guy everyone wanted to hang out with as part of the training they they all got an allowance to uh to spend he would blow his in the first day there you go boys I've got no more money left here we are we're in college I've got no money and everyone's like ah don't worry mark we'll sort you out and they just gave him more money I'll pay you back later yeah no worries mate good as gold pays back later whether anyone ever got paid back a lot of his friends said no he never paid many money back but we didn't care he was that sort of character every bad cop has his Achilles heel it can be booze drugs or sex the stand and it was gambling the Lambert should have been rung earlier you know he had a real reputation for gambling massive amounts of money that just couldn't be funded out of police salaries there was always a pub nearby and he would just have a punt have a punt on the horses have a punt with the poker machines now the extent to which he gambled was never really borne out that you'd have to imagine he gambled fairly heavily especially his gambling debts while he worked for the AFP and he cashed in his super to pay them off the debt situation must have been chronic there are strict rules about early access to Super unless you can prove exceptional circumstances despite this standard was given voluntary redundancy from the AFP and left in 1995 with a clean record [Music] in 1996 stand and took a senior role at the New South Wales crime commission as a security of organization that has the most far-reaching powers of any law enforcement body in New South Wales it was here that Mark standen learned to wield power and to work the system to his advantage using the powers of the commission he was looking to organize crime but he was also able to launch investigations into senior police who he believed might have been corrupt Mark standing basically led a team which broke a whole lot of rules but was really there to Simply even up personal scores not to actually investigate serious corruption I was a target of that team for probably two or three years the whole process was utterly corrupt at the time of the probe led by standing Nick caldas was head of homicide but previous to that he wore another hat as a New South Wales police union representative it was in that role he believes he made political enemies what were the allegations against you I've never been told exactly what it was I am now aware that my own phone was bugged for quite some time I know that my office was also a bug my ex-wife and children also had their phone booked what did they find after all those warrants and all that investigation what do they find nothing what effect did that have on you not only as a police officer but as a person I felt betrayed by the fact that people could do this sort of thing and get away with it simply because they happen to be working under the umbrella of the car Commission what they were doing under Mark Stan Adam was entirely inappropriate and mostly illegal they made a profit they didn't make I made a very substantial profit [Music] I'm investigating The Life and Times of Mark standen whose Fall From Grace shocked the law enforcement Community we've heard about the relationship between cops and their informants but you have to ask what's the cost of that information what happens when the police cross the line and begin to profit from the very crimes they're trying to solve operation mocker tell us all about that what happened well a criminal had rung the crime Commission had asked to speak to Mark standen as he thought he could help him with a number of drug investigations Man became known as Tom and became an informant Tom had seven kilos of cocaine which he subsequently produced to the crime commission about seven kilos had been imported into Australia via corruption at the airport and Tom had apparently already sold three kilos of the drug when he took it to Stanton the arrangement was that he would be selling that cocaine to give the crime commission increased access into the drug Networks so now the crime commission and Tom are in business together when Tom took the cocaine back he sold it to his underworld contacts and the proceeds came back to the crime Commission they made a profit there didn't they I made a very substantial profit made a very substantial profit and overlapped with a number of networks I believe it was 936 000 The Profit that was made in that little operation uh yes or something like that and subsequently 13 people were arrested it's true that operation marker did result in some high level arrests but of the seven kilos of cocaine that went out only one kilo ever came back later in court Mark Stanton was challenged about this and whether the crime commission had in fact endangered lives by brokering the sale of cocaine in response he said there are no recorded deaths from cocaine use which is a topic we researched seems a pretty weak rationale to me standen was mentored for 12 years at the New South Wales crime commission by its director Philip Bradley who expressed his shock when his star pupil was ultimately brought down by the Drug's importation in 2008. uh well Mr Sandman has um law enforcement and a successful career [Music] why did Mark stannon get so far Mark stannon was in in an organization which had very little oversight poor Administration no structures no risk assessments people came to Bradley and said we have some concerns Mr Bradley said well I have belief in him and standing delivered for Mr Bradley but what he didn't deliver was ethical honest investigative work how does someone live coherently when all they're doing is lying and cheating everybody around them it's the game he's in the game if you're in the game you play by the rules of the game and in the end there are no rules of the game you backstab your own colleagues you backstab peers you bury investigations you betray search warrants to the people who are going to be targets of the search warrants it's the game trust meant nothing to standard trust was access if Bradley trusted him that was Bradley's problem wasn't Stanley's problem it's the game [Music] when you look at the seizures on national TV there's an awful lot of pressure on these organizations to produce these monthly weekly daily busts he was working with people who didn't mind bending the rules as long as you've got a conviction out of it and those convictions promoted you now in the end no one asked questions have you got a confession who's going to ask questions when we return the drugs arrive in Sydney but all is not as it seems have a guess what's inside no I don't know a ransom letter what [Music] I'm investigating the case of Mark stand and Australia's most corrupt cop in 2008 before he was arrested for his part in a conspiracy to import 300 kilos of pseudoephedrine he took a call that would highlight another questionable relationship in his life the call came from a detective who was making inquiries into a cold case from 30 years before 18 year old Trudy Adams was picked up late one night in 1978. kayaking home from a dance at the Newport Surf Club she was never seen again all the evidence pointed to one man A notorious sex offender and violent career Criminal Neville tween Trudy Adams was last seen getting into a light colored panel van between owned a car that fitted that description tween and his gang were known to pick up hitchhikers on the North Shore taking them back to a property is believed in Terry Hills and gang raping them there [Music] 14 ropes in total 14 gang rapes in total [Music] thank you the incredible thing about the investigation into the 14 gang rapes and the presumed murder of Trudy Adams was that the police never interviewed Neville tween at his gang even though they were the red-hot Suspects [Music] these are very very dangerous men and they were protected all the way down the line tween was protected for the best part of 25 years by standard [Music] despite the relationship tween was arrested and convicted in 2006 for conspiring to import 27 kilos of cocaine there was another twist to come journalist and Author Peter hoisted recently spoke to the detective who in 2008 was working on the unsolved Trudy Adams case the investigating officer became aware of an association between tween and standing and made an approach to standing he wanted the assistance of the New South Wales crime commission to use their coercive powers to bring a witness in and try and get some evidence out of him stand and became very evasive and the homicides God Detective became a little bit suspicious and put a flag on the Fire and within a couple of days of putting a flag on bing bing bing bing bing learns that stand and visits tween in Long Bay jail one on one no other people there so this homicide Squad detective is basically in fear of his life Stanton was in fact involved in the investigation that led to tween's arrest now around that period Neville Twain's second wife Was Heard to say why is he doing that when you look at all the money we've given him over the years it's pretty revealing isn't it it is pretty revealing it appeared that it was all about the money for standing can't be proved that he was being paid by tween but it is clear that in 2008 stand and was actively seeking money from his other Shady friends let's recap them there's Jimmy kinch the Irish Mastermind driving the operation Luke wearden the Dutch drugs boss supplying the pseudoephedrine Bill gelatally the city food importer ready to receive the drugs in a shipment of rice and Mark standard who's hungry for cash you can see from his Communications uh in his emails that he was sending to this cartel he was becoming more and more desperate initially they were just oh this will tide me over the beer sweetener for some other corrupt elements within law enforcement you don't need to pay this guy I need to pay this guy and as the emails went on you could actually read into them the desperation that he was starting to feel and he would ask for more money and they were like hang on a minute we just gave you fifty thousand dollars here I need more money here's a typical payoff scenario Duality was the money man but only because kench had given him a million dollars up front to finance the Sydney end of the operation including renting a warehouse from time to time kinch would write emails to jillality with coded instructions to make payments to stand in in this case thirty thousand dollars the email reads can you give our friend a Christmas card and put thirty dollars in it so that she can have a decent Christmas soon after Duality gets on the phone to standard hey Ezio next week I need to give you a Christmas hand for me to a nice Christmas hams uh you know our famous Christmas hands the best in the planet a few days later Stanton meets gelately and the cash is exchanged [Music] put your hands there and your friends so just be careful yeah foreign [Applause] he was a man who wanted a more glamorous wealthier life than he had now at the crime commission he must have been on 200 250 Grand a year but he had a very expensive gambling habit and he also had Adam a very expensive girlfriend he was a glamor boy he would shower her with uh with trips away they would stay at the best hotels they would stay in the best Suites he would buy her Tiffany bracelets or earrings or pearls or what have you I mean he was starting to live this sort of lavish life and he needed to sustain that after more than two years of planning the sinotrans Shanghai finally blumbered into Port botany all the way from Pakistan this was the second shipment organized by the cartel first shipment was a dummy run rice only but this time it was the real deal 300 kilograms of pseudoephedrine mixed in with rice enough to make drugs with a street value of 60 million dollars for everyone involved in the operation it was a critical moment it was very unnerving for them because when the rice arrived there was no paperwork there was no bill of lading the pakistanis then sent a message to gelatalie who freaked out saying Oh by God they're holding us to ransom they want more money for the paperwork gelately got straight on the phone to Luke wearden the Dutch connection hello hi with me with me let me just tell you what happened I received the um the documents today yeah it was an Express post from us have a guess what's inside no I don't know a ransom letter what the drug cartels long-awaited second shipment of rice arrived in Sydney but without any paperwork after some frantic phone calls and emails the documentation was sorted and the rice struck drugs cleared Customs but not before the AFP had a look at what was inside and what did they find a classic double cross what was interesting was that the pakistanis had had the last laugh there were no drugs in them at all so a little bit of a problem for the police where's the evidence but no no they go for conspiracy to import that's the charge that you know they could they could show [Music] what you're seeing now is the moment the shipment to jalathli's Warehouse in Western City Sid the AFP was recording everything and remarkably bill gerlapally was blissfully unaware of the Double Cross by the pakistanis in a series of coded emails kinch told you gladly to let the rice sit unopened for a while standing was anxious the next day he arrived at the warehouse to remonstrate with gelately little did he know the AFP net was about to close the arrests were all coordinated there was more than a dozen arrests made simultaneously overseas at what point did you know that Mark standen was going to be arrested well there was a couple of times um that we were told brace brace for impact he's about to be arrested place the the car park of the New South Wales crime commission headquarters in Kent Street okay we're here to rescue for conspiring to import into Australia and Commercial quantity a border control precursors do you understand that yeah no it's not we're going to conduct a search of you okay and then we'll be taking you back to our office to an interview room where we'll be giving you the opportunity to take part in the tape recorder recommended you Paul's gonna put this on you really yes [Music] his reaction to being arrested is you're kidding me you're kidding me he had no idea it was coming the arrogance the man the the the the belief in his own infallibility the belief in the stupidity organization he worked for he didn't see it coming he was genuinely surprised it was quite funny by the time they got Mark standing in the police car to be charged and they brought him through the police headquarters his story was put up on every screen on the internet and of course that was for effect they put it up there and they went hey Mark that's you up there isn't it isn't that you and of course we had his photo we had all sorts of undercover images and we had the full story about what he had been doing for the last couple of years and that shocked him and that was used to put a bit of pressure on him to uh to uh to break ranks to actually admit what he did and of course he never did do that yeah I'm tired with Bill Gillette Lee and other persons to import into Australia border control precursors do you understand the obligation yes what can you tell me about that holiday uh nothing specific in the legendary conspiracy importantly because that's not true even as the allegations were outlined to him stand and continued to protest his innocence he even attempted to get released from custody [Music] there was one admission he was prepared to make how would you describe the current financial position or at the time of his arrest in 2008 Stan and owed approximately a million dollars and 150 000 on his credit cards alone he owned owed about 150 000 on three credit cards he had you wonder where the money went still to come the trial the verdict and the secret stand and is still keeping I personally suspect that Mark standen could drop a whole lot of buckets on a whole lot of people standen was arrested in June 2008 but his case was not heard in the New South Wales Supreme Court until March 2011. trial expected to run for 14 weeks ended up dragging on for nearly five months he basically said that kinch and gelatalie had conned him had tricked him that he was just an innocent guy who was looking at doing a bit of oil importing he was so confident of his acquittal that he knocked back a deal where he would have served eight years a former top crime fighter has been jailed for at least 16 years over a plot to import illegal drugs into Australia the judge said Mark standen was motivated by money and his crime was worse because he abused his position as second in command at the New South Wales crime Commission [Music] Mark standard maintained his innocence throughout his trial and does to this day despite the overwhelming evidence linking him to the cartel and the pseudoeffigent importation he was sent here to Long Bay jail where he'll remain in protective custody until 2024 when he's eligible for parole at the age of 67. in the annals of corrupt coppers how significant is Mark standard well he's probably number one [Music] let's cook a cup we've had and I wonder how he copes in prison ERS won't like him because some of them he will have been responsible for hunting down when he was in the AFP or the crime Commission the cops won't like him my God you wouldn't want to be out there in the exercise yard he's yet to share what he knows do you think it's likely he will Mark stadden has never admitted guilt in any way shape or form and in fact since he's been in jail he's got himself a law degree and he's made various pictures to try and have his case thrown out he's even tried to go to the high court to have his case reviewed saying it's too circumstantial I'm too senior I'm too good you can't beat me and that's part of his arrogance as well that he's had throughout most of his career foreign [Music] ly suspect that Mark standen could drop a whole lot of buckets on a whole lot of people particularly those that worked with him in the special crime and Internal Affairs command I'm sure he knows a lot more about other organized crime figures he's done Badness with over the years he's not saying or doing anything that gives up anybody else his silence has probably been bought I think the people of Australia are wrote an explanation about why he has not coughed up if you like everything that he knew the day after his arrest standen's boss the New South Wales crime commissioner Phillip Bradley faced questions about a possible Royal Commission his response oh this is an isolated instrument of one person engaging in crime I don't think that's Justified for Russians what happened with Mark standen is a failure on many levels and it's an indictment of our system unfortunately the fact that he got away with it for as long as he has really highlighted the fact that superjudicial bodies will have no effect of oversight they have extraordinary powers they have secrecy Provisions nobody watches how they spend their money nobody sits in judgment on their results they can literally do what they want without any effective oversight bearing all this in mind I still see a need for bodies like the New South Wales crime commission but they have to be accountable in my opinion the War on Drugs was lost a long time ago but if we must continue the struggle then we have to give our cops a Fighting Chance of success some of these organized crimes Cindy gets some of the biggest and most powerful in the world um they're essentially Unstoppable the most prominent organized crime seen to get in Australia and around the world is under the calabrian mafia they have a turnover estimated somewhere between 60 and 80 billion dollars a year that makes them bigger than BHP billing they're involved in legitimate businesses and it's all about flushing money ultimately they want to be able to have their money bury it bring it up and then flush it climb organized crime groups don't just operate in a vacuum they operate they operate in collaboration with one another it's for Mark standen his story is a cautionary Tale it's almost like a uh one of those great Hollywood movies where you love and hate the character you know he is the Fallen Hero um and and that was very much Mark stand and he he seemingly had it all and yet he still went to the dark side he wanted more for whatever reason he had a great career a family a reputation and yet he gave it all away for for money for greed is it possible that there are other Mark standings still operating that we don't know about I wouldn't say it's probable but it is likely [Music] [Music]

Channel: Australian Crime

Views: 152,304

Keywords: Australia, Australian Crime, Australian crime documentary, Australian crime series, Gangs & Mobs, Psychology of Crime, Stalkers, child crime, con artists, crime documentary, crime series, disappearances, family crime, murder, police, true crime, true crime documentary, true crime series, True crime, Documentary, Crime series, Theft, Crime, Mark Standen, Mark Standin, True Crime, Drug Crime, Corruption, Polic, Police, Cops, Aus Cops, Drug Ring, Drug, Criminal, Corrupt, true crime stories

Id: 9h8woUTL9aQ

Length: 43min 18sec (2598 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 01 2022