John Anthony Musolino would get no personal gain from cannabis crop growing in his house, court told
Police found a massive drug crop at a Paralowie father’s home, but he only let drug dealers set it up at the house to help settle his meth-addict son’s drug debt, a court has heard.
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A Paralowie father who was caught with cannabis and a hydroponic set-up in his home was “misguided” and just trying to help his son, a court has heard.
Police found the stash – between 4.8kg and 8kg – and cultivation equipment, as well as a bud stripper, at the home of John Anthony Musolino, 61, last year.
He has pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in a large commercial quantity of a controlled drug.
But his counsel, Anthony Allen, told the District Court on Monday that Musolino had agreed for the crop to be grown at his home to settle a drug debt for his meth-addicted son and did not stand to gain any financial benefit.
Mr Allen said Musolino – a teetotaller – had already paid down $20,000 of his son’s debt.
“His (offending) was not as a consequence of commercial motives or greed, nor as a consequence of his own addiction,” Mr Allen said.
“I have submitted that his involvement came about through misguided parental altruism.
“He was faced with the prospect of a drug debt being enforced against his son in a customarily threatening manner and it is against that background that he, in effect, acquiesced to this hydroponic set-up and the plants being parachuted in to his property to extinguish that drug debt.”
He said Musolino felt “incredible pressure to do the right thing to help his son”.
It was “out of character”, Mr Allen said, and explained why “an otherwise hard working father who is trying to assist his sons gets himself tangled up into such serious crime”.
Mr Allen said Musolino’s case was “different from nearly all other cases that come before the court” and was deserving of a suspended sentence because it was an “exceptional case”.
Judge Ian Press said Musolino had accepted that he maintained the marijuana crop while it was growing at his property.
Prosecutor Benjamin Sturm said Musolino stood to gain “indirect benefit” from the drug crop through his son and it could not have happened without his help.
Mr Sturm said Musolino was “aware of the scale of the enterprise in which he was involving himself”.
He will be sentenced next month.