Former NSW detectives Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara should spend the rest of their lives in jail for executing a young drug dealer for financial gain, a judge has been told.
They applied their police experience, training and cunning to achieve "two crimes right at the top of the criminal calendar," said crown prosecutor Chris Maxwell QC.
A NSW Supreme Court jury found Rogerson, 75, and McNamara, 57, guilty in June of murdering university student and dealer Jamie Gao, 20, and stealing 2.7kg of the drug ice in May 2014.
At their sentence hearing on Thursday, Mr Maxwell called for the pair to be given a life term, noting contract killings were one category attracting that sentence.
But he said Mr Gao's murder went one step further as it was a killing to enable the pair to obtain a large commercial quantity of the drug ice.
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"A drug that results in so much crime being committed," he said.
"It is not just for money, it is so they can obtain and then distribute the drug which has proven to be a scourge in our society."
Rogerson, wearing prison greens, and McNamara, in a suit and sporting a new beard, both took notes during the hearing before Justice Geoffrey Bellew in the packed courtroom.
The former friends were found guilty of murdering Mr Gao, taking his drugs, and dumping his body at sea bundled in a tarp and chains.
Both men had blamed each other for the fatal shooting .
Mr Maxwell submitted they used the police training and experience given to them by society to enforce the law in a manner "which was a complete antithesis to what is intended".
"It is a direct affront to the rule of law in a civilised society."
Lawyers for the pair, who each still deny the crimes, argued against the imposition of a life sentence.
Mr Maxwell said Rogerson gave evidence saying he had no respect for Mr Gao, which appeared to relate to his being a drug dealer.
Describing this as "dripping with hypocrisy", he said Rogerson killed Mr Gao so he himself could become a drug dealer.
He also rejected claims relating to the inevitability of Rogerson, at least, dying in jail even if he was given a set sentence rather than life.
"If this is a worst category case ... it follows a life sentence should be given."
The pair will be sentenced on September 2.
