A Hunter man who was part of an international conspiracy to import more than half a tonne of cocaine from South America says he was the frontman of the operation, but was not running it.
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Peter Leslie Ritson, 62, faced a sentencing hearing in Newcastle District Court on Thursday after he pleaded guilty in the local court to being part of a conspiracy to bring a commercial quantity of the drug into the country.
The court heard the Scone man set up a front company as part of a plan to arrange four shipments with the drug concealed inside - 550kg of the illicit substance across the first three loads - though no cocaine reached Australia as a result.
Ritson said he was paid cash totalling up to $30,000 from higher-ranked associates for his involvement between 2017 and when Strike Force Leaburn detectives arrested him in early 2022.
"They'd ring me up and tell me to come to a meeting and I'd go, and they'd give me instructions and they'd give me money," Ritson said from Hunter Correctional Centre on Thursday.
Ritson said he was instructed to set up the business, of which he was the sole director, for the purposes of drug importation.
The court heard that about $760,000 went through the company's bank account as part of the conspiracy.
Through the company, Ritson paid freight and importation fees, as well as other costs linked to the drug operation.
"It was my job, that's what I was instructed to do, or asked to do," he said.
Felicity Fraser, a Hunter woman well known in the horse racing and polo communities, was enlisted as Ritson's assistant in the front company.
She was last year sentenced to a maximum of nine-and-a-half years in jail.
The pair had worked together at an Upper Hunter equine transport company before they became involved in the conspiracy.
Ritson said on Thursday he considered himself a frontman for his criminal associates who instructed him.
He said he attended dozens of meetings during which he was given payments of $1000 to $2000 in exchange for his services.
"It wasn't a lot but it kept me going," he said.
The court heard that Ritson wanted help to stabilise his life outside prison so he was not tempted to re-offend in order to make money as a result of becoming desperate.
"Today, sitting in here at my age, where I'm at ... if I get out, I'm on the streets, so of course I would [repeat the offending]," he said.
"I've got no help. So what am I supposed to do?"
Judge Troy Anderson, SC, will sentence Ritson on May 10.
