Sung Min Cho: Sydney man who trafficked meth into WA to pay off cocaine debts jailed for 10 years

A man who turned to drug smuggling to pay off his significant cocaine debt has paid a high price, being jailed for more than a decade. Sung Min Cho pleaded guilty to two drug trafficking charges in Perth District Court after he was arrested in Malaga in 2022 as part of Federal Police investigation into a Sydney-based criminal syndicate. The gang, suspected of trafficking drugs and cash between NSW and WA, had been using Apple AirTags monitor the movements of the illicit goods. It was two of these trackers that ultimately led to Cho’s capture. AFP officers located the AirTags at a Malaga warehouse on September 22, sparking a search of the premises. Cho, 37, arrived at the warehouse during the raid, which also uncovered 5.7kg of methamphetamine in 14 separate packages inside two toolboxes, $615,735 in cash stashed inside a cardboard box, a cash counter, a set of digital scales, latex gloves, a vacuum sealing machine and vacuum sealer bags. Each of the metal chests had an AirTag stuck on the inside. Forensic testing found the drugs had a purity of 80 per cent — a retail value that can run into millions of dollars depending on the amounts in which it is sold. Police then searched a unit at Quest Apartments in Innaloo where Cho, from New South Wales, had been staying and found another $15,000, drug paraphernalia and a small quantity of cocaine. They also seized a luxury Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watch and consignment documents relating to the interstate transport from NSW to WA of the two metal chests found at the warehouse. The South Korean-born man, who was also found with a key to the Malaga premises, was charged with one count of trafficking a commercial quantity of a controlled drug and one count of dealing with proceeds of crime. The Perth District Court on Wednesday sentenced Cho to 10 years and six months jail, with a minimum non-parole period of six years. In his sentencing, Judge John Staude said Cho had visited the Malaga warehouse five times the day after flying into Perth from Sydney. He also found that that while Cho had shown remorse, his offending was not isolated and that he held a “trusted role” within the gang, as evidenced by messages found on his phone that showed he had been distributing drugs and collecting money in WA since at least June of that same year. “Your explanation for your offending is that you resorted to alcohol and cocaine use following your brother’s death to the extent that you became dependent on cocaine .... (and) acquired a significant drug debt,” Judge Staude said. “You say that that grew to a point where your dealers and their associates made it clear, to use your words, that you belonged to them until the debts were cleared.” In a letter to the court, Cho — who has taken significant steps towards drug rehabilitation whilst on bail — admitted he was “under no illusions about how badly I have failed the community, my upbringing, my faith and my loved ones”. “It is one thing to use drugs and harm yourself. It is far worse to become involved in causing harm to others. I fully accept that what I did helped to lead others down the same destructive path I had fallen into,” he wrote. Cho was not supported by his parents in court, however, Judge Staude noted he’d made major strides in repairing the relationship with his family and retained employment throughout the course of his strict bail the past 18 months. The investigation was part of Operation Phobetor, which involved the AFP, NSW Police Force and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.