Adam Hunter was in huge financial strife.
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It was mid-2019, he had next to nothing in the bank and he had been forced to take money from his children's savings accounts to stay afloat as his business, Bungendore Landscape Supplies, struggled.
Amid a seemingly never-ending stream of texts and calls about overdue accounts, the situation was becoming increasingly dire.
By the time Hunter received a call saying someone was at his home to disconnect the electricity, his children were already upset about being unable to have McDonald's and needing to eat cheese sandwiches for dinner instead.
He could not afford to buy shoes for his wife. Even a haircut for his son was a stretch.
But Hunter had been working on a plan to get through what he described as "desperate times" and reverse his financial misfortune by helping organised crime figures import a commercial quantity of cocaine, creatively concealed inside a refurbished excavator.
And after admitting in Queanbeyan Local Court on Monday to his role in the plot to bring an estimated $144 million worth of the drug into this country from South Africa, the 34-year-old faces a potential sentence of life in jail.
A statement of agreed facts tendered to the court reveals that Hunter arranged the purchase of the second-hand digger on or about May 16 last year.
Inside the machine's hydraulic arm were 384 packages, each containing one kilogram of cocaine, though prosecutors have accepted that Hunter was "recruited by others" to import the excavator and did not know the quantity or purity of the drugs it held.
The excavator arrived at a NSW port on June 20 last year, when it was intercepted by authorities who spent days substituting the drugs for an inert substance.
Almost as soon as it reached our shores, Hunter was growing impatient and continually calling a freight forwarding service for updates on how soon the excavator would be delivered to Bungendore Landscape Supplies.
Eventually, it was released and trucked to the business in a controlled delivery, with Hunter there to receive it on July 11 last year.
For the next few days, not realising police were onto him, he made plans to extract the cocaine he thought was still secreted inside the machine.
The big moment came on July 14, 2019, when another man cut into the hydraulic arm with an angle grinder.
Hunter shared a "fist bump" with the man and took up a position on some scaffolding beside the digger, from which he began to remove the substituted packages and place them in plastic tubs.
But his jubilation quickly turned to horror as police, who had been laying in wait conducting surveillance, stormed the business.
He leapt off the scaffolding and began to run, but did not get far as officers secured the premises and arrested him.
Hunter initially told police he had "no idea" why cocaine would have been found inside the excavator, saying he had not gone near it that day after buying it online because he was looking to expand his business.
He offered a simple "no comment" when quizzed on why the hydraulic arm had been cut open.
More than a year later and now calling a Goulburn jail cell home, Hunter's tune has significantly changed.
He appeared in court via video link on Monday, sporting a shaved head, and pleaded guilty to attempting to import a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug.
Prosecutors withdrew another two charges, and Magistrate Roger Clisdell committed Hunter to the NSW District Court for sentence on a date still to be determined.
Mr Clisdell said the sentencing would likely take place in Goulburn.
Bungendore Landscape Supplies co-director Timothy Engstrom, who has also been charged over the drug shipment, has already been committed to the District Court for trial after pleading not guilty to the allegations levelled at him.
Hunter has been in custody ever since his arrest, while Mr Engstrom is on bail after securing conditional release late last year.
