Jury returns verdicts in trial of David Campbell, Tristan Waters

However, the men were found to have conspired to possess the estimated $1.5 billion worth of drugs, which were concealed inside steel posts hidden in a container shipped from China.

On Tuesday, the NSW District Court found David Edward John Campbell, 55, and Tristan Egon Sebastian Waters, 39, not guilty of conspiracy to import a border-controlled drug.

However, Campbell was found guilty of conspiracy to possess a border-controlled drug.

Waters had previously pleaded guilty to this charge.

Co-offender Rohan Peter Arnold is currently serving a 27-year jail sentence after pleading guilty in May 2019 to conspiring to import a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug.

The jury deliberated for about two weeks after hearing about seven weeks' worth of evidence.

During the trial, at Sydney's Downing Centre, Campbell claimed he and Waters were acting "under pressure" to find the "missing" container and a cartel had made "serious threats".

Giving evidence, he said a cartel in China believed he had stolen the shipping container and they wanted it back.

"It really intensified where there were photographs of my house, my children ... me coming out of work, pictures of bodies wrapped up in black plastic," Campbell said.

The three men were arrested in Belgrade, Serbia in February 2018 after a nine-and-a-half-month Australian Federal Police investigation spanning several countries.

On April 1, 2017, a container concealing the drug hidden in steel posts, was seized by police, who communicated to Campbell that it had been lost.

The Crown alleged that in October that year, an undercover police officer using the alias "Henry" got in contact with Campbell, saying he had possession of the lost container in New Zealand.

The prosecution claimed that, later that month, Campbell met with "Henry" at a hotel in New Zealand to work out a "finder's fee".

Campbell's barrister, Ronald Driels, had told the court Campbell's claims were "not absurd, not a fairy tale" and his client "was used".

"The AFP decided to seek major players in an international criminal syndicate, not seek somebody like Mr Campbell," Mr Driels said.

"They squeezed, they put the pressure on, they manipulated to achieve what they wanted.

"They were squeezing an Australian family."

Crown prosecutor Sean Flood alleged Waters and Campbell had very different roles in attempting to import and then possess the cocaine.

Mr Flood argued Campbell was the contact person for the delivery and possession of the container, in charge of unpacking the steel posts, and responsible for chasing the location of the container once it was reported lost.

Mr Flood told the jury Waters was, on the other hand, "high up" in the international syndicate involved with the drugs.

During his closing address, Waters' barrister, David Dalton SC, told the jury his client was "playing the role of the heavy" and had not been involved "all the way through".

Waters and Campbell are set to appear in court for the start of sentencing on October 19.

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