A grandfather caught with about 200,000 hits of ecstasy in his vehicle is facing many years in custody.
Kenneth Wiggett, 63, had 19.8 kilograms of MDMA in a sports bag in his Toyota Prado near Wodonga when stopped by police on December 7, 2018.
Acting on intelligence, officers intercepted the vehicle on the Hume Highway at Barnawartha and asked what was in the bag.
He replied "opals", but a search found 20 vacuum sealed bags of drugs with 79 per cent purity.
Officers also found a fraudulent licence with a fake name and $1010 in cash, and a check of the car showed a hidden compartment had been built in to transport illegal goods.
Wiggett on Thursday pleaded guilty to large commercial drug trafficking.
Sold in .1 gram lots, the haul would equal about 198,000 hits.
The County Court heard the weight of the drugs was 20 times the large commercial trafficking quantity with the charge carrying a maximum term of life in custody and a standard sentence of 16 years.
Wiggett has previously been jailed for commercial drug trafficking.
Judge Michael McInerney said there was no evidence about what Wiggett's role was in the drug trafficking, including whether he was the main player or just a courier.
"I don't know what his role was," he said.
"He might have been the principal, he might not have been.
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"All I know is he's committed one of the most serious offences that's set out in the legislation."
His lawyer Samantha Poulter argued his offending was confined to transporting the drugs with no other evidence of involvement in a trafficking enterprise of business.
But Judge McInerney again said there was no evidence of his role.
While there was also no proof of a financial reward, the judge said only an "absolute idiot" would take such a risk for no money.
Wiggett had been living between Cannonvale in Queensland and Lillydale, near Melbourne, at the time of his arrest.
He told officers he had owned the four-wheel-drive for three months and came into possession of the bag a day earlier.
Police received information about Wiggett but it's unclear where the information came from.
The former Ansett air freight employee and gym owner has been in custody since his arrest.
He has five children, and grandchildren, and his lawyer said she held concerns about his health conditions while in custody.
Ms Poulter said the longer he was locked up, the more his health problems were likely to be exacerbated.
Judge McInerney noted one of his roles in sentencing was to ensure he didn't impose a "crushing" term of imprisonment.
Wiggett's partner listened in to proceedings.
The 63-year-old will return for sentencing on February 19.
