The committal proceeding in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court heard the compartment was well concealed and could only be opened by hidden switches under the dashboard and in the boot, which operated an electric motor.
The car crashed near Seymour in July 2019 and members of the Seymour police Divisional Tasking Unit were tipped off about it by NSW investigators who were monitoring communications of the car’s registered owner and his associates as part of a drug investigation.
The court heard evidence that after the accident the owner and an associate expressed concern about what would happen to the car and the risk of police attending and finding “it”.
“If they pick it up I am ****ed,” the Sydney-based owner of the car was recorded as saying.
Mr Florentino was charged with trafficking and five counts of possession relating to each of the 1 kg bags of methamphetamine found in the secret compartment.
Prosecutor Peter Pickering said the car had a concealed compartment, the concealed compartment contained drugs packaged and prepared for trafficking and the accused undertook to drive the vehicle from Sydney to Melbourne.
“He was driving the car for a purpose and the purpose is trafficking,” he said.
“It is a classic mule case, the person in the vehicle has a task to do, the difference is he fell asleep and crashed the car.”
Defence lawyer Martin Kozlowski cross-examined the only witness, police informant Sen Constable Troy Fidler, who agreed that Mr Florentino was calm at the scene and that no forensic or other evidence was found linking him directly to the compartment, the switches to open it or the drug packages.
Mr Kozlowski said there was no evidence, including from phone intercepts, that his client even knew about the drugs in the vehicle.
“What the police have is a man delivering a car and they can’t prove anything other than that,” he said.
Magistrate Hayley Bate said while the two NSW connections had no qualms talking about it on the phone or in messages, there was an absence of any discussion from Mr Florentino. She dismissed the six most serious charges, finding there was insufficient evidence, leaving only a single charge of possessing a small amount of methamphetamine found in a sports bag.
The prosecution then raised the prospect of a two-week adjournment so the Crown prosecutor could consider whether to reinstate the charges and proceed directly to trial.
“It would be completely unfair for me to say I have found there is insufficient evidence to convict — I’ve dismissed all the charges except for possession of 0.1 of a gram — but I am going to keep you in custody just in case police need to charge you again,” Magistrate Bate said.
After an adjournment the prosecution advised there would be no reinstatement of the other charges by direct indictment.
Mr Florentino pleaded guilty to the remaining possession charge which the magistrate agreed to discharge without conviction, taking account of the 492 days the 32-year-old had already spent in custody on remand.