Qantas steward busted with $200K worth of methamphetamine faces jail

MELBOURNE, Australia – A former Qantas airline steward who worked business class flights to America for several months with a ”raging” ice habit faces jail for importing about $200,000 of the drug.

Samuel Kaufman, 50, described the methamphetamine, which had a purity of 90 per cent, as chocolates on his crew declaration card in March last year before his arrest in the basement car park of his South Yarra apartment.

Kaufman, a veteran long-haul Qantas flight attendant, was found guilty by a County Court jury in November of a charge of importing a marketable quantity of the drug. As well, he pleaded guilty to possessing eight grams of the drug found in his car after returning from Los Angeles.

Kaufman said in evidence he believed the two packages he took from his pants contained $US20,000, he had no knowledge it was drugs and that he had done a favour for a friend.

Prosecutor Francesca Holmes said it was ”unclear” whether Kaufman was a courier, principal or combination of both, while Judge Christopher Ryan remarked he had made an ”appalling error of judgment”.

The judge said there were ”two Mr Kaufmans” – the ”kind, giving, gentle friend”, and the drug-user in the gay scene friends were unaware of.

Kaufman’s barrister, David Grace, QC, said that after his client’s life became ”disorganised and chaotic” a year ago, he used Xanax to cope with ice withdrawal while travelling. He urged the judge to be ”merciful” in sentencing on Wednesday.