Canberra Nightclub Manager Acquitted

Maurizio Gianpier Rao, manager of Canberra’s Cube nightclub, was acquitted of cocaine dealing charges in the New South Wales District Court.

The NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions claimed it intercepted phone conversations between July and August 2008, partially coded and in Italian, between the 37-year-old and another man to bring $25,000 worth of drugs into the Australian Capital Territory.

Police said they found 3 ounces of coke in the other man’s car.

Rao’s lawyers argued that the prosecution could not prove Rao intended to “on-sell” the drugs, and maintained that the drugs had been supplied to him.