Vic: Gang boss who operated from Crown jailed for 16 yrs

AAP General News (Australia)
08-03-2001
Vic: Gang boss who operated from Crown jailed for 16 yrs

MELBOURNE, Aug 3 AAP - A drug trafficker who operated an international heroin dealing
ring out of a hotel attached to Melbourne's Crown Casino was today sentenced to 16 years'
jail.

Melbourne County Court Judge Anthony Duckett said Ko Kon Tong had "sought financial
reward from the misery and death the drug trade imposes of others".

Judge Duckett also jailed for 17 years Tong's co-accused Vinh Lac Lao, 41, the Hong
Kong-based supplier in the drug syndicate.

The court was previously told that Tong had turned over more than $400 million at the
casino, where he was a feted, high-rolling guest for more than two years.

Judge Duckett said he considered Lao and Tong to be the principal offenders in the
gang, but could not determine from the evidence who was the dominant player.

In differentiating the sentences, he took into consideration Tong's guilty plea, as
opposed to Lao's plea of not guilty, the shorter period of offending and attempts at rehabilitation.

In the two years at Crown Casino's high-rolling Mahogany Room, Tong, 46, turned over
$416 million as he laundered the proceeds of heroin trafficking.

At the same time, the casino paid him $2.5 million in high-roller premiums.

As Crown Casino was legally required to report all dealings of $10,000, the high number
of Tong's transactions caught the attention of the National Crime Authority (NCA).

Tong had been in custody since his arrest in his Crown Towers hotel room in August, 1999.

The NCA's Asian organised crime unit then launched Operation Zareba, which led to the
arrest of Tong, Lao and four others, who are due to be sentenced next week.

AAP sm/mh/mjm/bwl

KEYWORD: TONG

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