AN airport worker, whose part in a plot to smuggle illicit pills from Thailand helped trigger a major security review, joined a culture which was rife with corruption, a court has heard.
The claims came as former customs officer Paul Katralis, 25, faced a sentence hearing in the District Court for helping drug trafficker Joseph Harb import 65,000 flu tablets into the country in August.
Katralis was one of two officials arrested last year amid revelations a corrupt "cell" with underworld links was operating out of the Sydney international terminal.
The arrests followed a two-year investigation by the AFP and other authorities which resulted in the federal government forming a customs reform panel under the watch of retired judge James Wood.
Katralis was to have received $50,000 from Harb for smoothing the passage of the drugs through customs and providing detailed, inside knowledge on how to avoid security measures.
The pills contained enough of the precursor chemical pseudoephedrine to make pure methamphetamine - also known as the drug ice - with a street value of $2.3 million, according to court documents.
Both men admitted their roles in the plot after police intercepted a series of incriminating phone conversations, ending in Harb and his female companion's arrest as they tried to leave the airport with the tablets.
Katralis told Harb to pack the drugs in vacuum-sealed bags and take an early flight when the airport would be busy, even boasting in one recorded conversation that another person "did it last time and there was no issue".
But on Friday, his barrister Philip Boulten SC told a judge Katralis had become part of a team at the airport that was "infused" with corruption.
"The culture existed when he got there," he said.
The court was also told there was a "pervasive culture" among customs staff of "fast-tracking" family members through security.
As Harb approached immigration checks, Katralis sent him text messages with instructions to first "wait" and then "come" at the right time so the drug importer could pass through the airport without customs or quarantine staff searching his bags.
Katralis claimed in court he was due to join the AFP - the same agency which busted him for his corrupt dealings - four days after his arrest.
He said Harb eventually agreed to give him six boxes of the growth hormone Gen-Tropin, which was worth up to $2500 a box, in exchange for his help so he could "bulk up" for his planned career change.
Katralis will be sentenced on April 26.
Harb is due to be sentenced on Friday.
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