Tristan Egon Sebastian Waters (second from left) arrives in Australia in January 2019 after being extradited from Serbia. Photo: AFP.
A former Canberra builder handed two decades behind bars for his role in an attempt to possess up to $1.5 billion worth of cocaine has failed in his bid to appeal his sentence.
The NSW District Court previously heard how, in April 2017, 2576 blocks of cocaine weighing a total of 1.28 tonnes had been hidden inside prefabricated steel before they were seized by police when the drugs arrived in a shipping container in Sydney.
It was estimated the drugs had a street value of between about $700 million and $1.5 billion.
The court heard former builder Tristan Egon Sebastian Waters travelled from Dubai to Serbia to help a criminal syndicate possess the cocaine.
He assisted with logistics for four days before the then-34-year-old was arrested in Belgrade on 16 January, 2018.
He has remained in custody ever since and in 2024 was sentenced to 20 years’ jail with a non-parole period of 12 years over his role in the crime.
Another person from the Canberra region, businessman David Edward John Campbell, was found guilty of conspiring with others to possess a commercial quantity of unlawfully imported cocaine.
In 2024, he was sentenced to a total of 18 years’ jail with a non-parole period of 10-and-a-half years, which means he will become eligible for parole in July 2028 with time served.
Meanwhile, Waters launched an appeal, arguing in part that the judge who sentenced him made a mistake when rejecting his claims that his role was that of a minor player who was dispensable as a troubleshooter for the syndicate.
Also, he complained there was a disparity between the sentences for Campbell and himself.
Police seized 1.28 tonnes of cocaine when it arrived in Sydney in April 2017. Photo: AFP Facebook.
But late in December 2025, three judges on the NSW Court of Appeal published a decision dismissing his appeal.
They said it was open to the sentencing judge to reject Waters’ claims about his role.
“It was reasonably open for the sentencing judge to reject the submission that the applicant played only a minor role, especially considering the applicant occupied a position of trust and was tasked with handling money and drugs, as well as obtaining a firearm,” the three appeal judges said in the summary of their published decision.
The appeal judges also said when compared with Campbell, Waters’ role was greater in terms of seriousness of offending and his place in the hierarchy.
They said while they did find three other grounds of appeal had been established, no other sentence could be applied.
“The applicant’s sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment was appropriate; his offending was very serious with few mitigating factors and carried a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. No lesser sentence is warranted,” they said in their summary.
Waters pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring with others to possess a commercial quantity of cocaine and will be eligible for parole from January 2030.
A third co-offender, Rohan Peter Arnold, pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to import a border-controlled drug and in 2020 was sentenced to 27 years’ jail with 19 years’ non-parole.
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