Jailed drugs investigator Mark Standen appeals judgment

A former senior narcotics investigator who was convicted in 2011 of plotting to import 300 kilograms of drugs will appeal the judgment in a Sydney court on Thursday.

Mark Standen, a former NSW Crime Commission director, was jailed for at least 16 years for his part in the smuggling plot and sentenced to a maximum of 22 years.

Standen was found to be a principal in the plot to import the 300kg of pseudoephedrine - used to make the illicit drugs speed and ice - from Pakistan in a container of rice. It arrived in Sydney in April 2008.

The cargo did not actually contain the drug, but Justice Bruce James said Standen and his co-conspirators had believed it would be in the shipment.

The earliest date Standen will be eligible for release on parole is June 1, 2024.