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CLAIMS of drug-smuggling by Sydney airport workers have shifted to the domestic terminal, where a baggage handler has been arrested - offering hope to Schapelle Corby's appeal team.

The arrest yesterday of Richard Camilleri, 40, marked the fourth time a Qantas worker has been implicated in alleged drug-smuggling in the past four months.


The three other employees worked at the international terminal.

Police allege Mr Camilleri had prior knowledge of 250g of cocaine being smuggled from Sydney to Melbourne and told an associate that police had seized the drugs en route.

Mr Camilleri, from the eastern Sydney suburb of Bondi Junction, was charged with being an accessory after the fact to the supply of a commercial quantity of narcotics.

It is alleged Mr Camilleri told his friend Kyran Frederick Terry of the police raid after Mr Terry arrived in Melbourne on February 17 and noticed the cocaine missing.

Mr Terry appeared in Sydney's Central Local Court yesterday, charged with possession and supply of cocaine.

The drugs were allegedly found in his suitcase, which was intercepted by police after Mr Terry checked in for the Sydney to Melbourne flight on February 17.

The court was told the baggage handler allegedly called Mr Terry on February 18, telling him police had taken his luggage and to "expect a phone call".

Qantas last night confirmed Mr Camilleri had been stood down. He joins two other international baggage handlers under suspension for their alleged links to a cocaine-smuggling plot.

Qantas security manager Alan Conwell was last week sacked for not disclosing his links to Michael Nicholas Hurley, the alleged mastermind behind an airport-based smuggling ring.

The airline has denied there are entrenched drug-smuggling networks among its workers.

NSW Police Detective Superintendent Dave Laidlaw said yesterday the latest arrest was not linked to the alleged $15 million cocaine-smuggling plot at the international terminal, which is part of an ongoing seven-month police operation, dubbed Mocha.

The allegations are the first time a link has been made between baggage handlers and domestic flights.

During Corby's marijuana-smuggling trial in Bali, her lawyers claimed she was an unwitting mule of a smuggling plot by domestic baggage handlers gone wrong.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty has maintained there were no known domestic crime syndicates using baggage handlers to smuggle drugs.

Corby's lawyers have flagged an appeal to the Indonesian Supreme Court over her 20-year conviction for smuggling 4.1kg of marijuana into Indonesia. Recent revelations of alleged drug-smuggling by Sydney airport workers are expected to be a strong feature of her appeal.

Mr Terry, 37, was yesterday refused bail and remanded to appear in court on Tuesday.

Mr Camilleri was granted bail to appear at Sydney's Waverley Court on July 6.

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