Steven Joseph Jacques jailed for three years for his ‘middle man’ role in drug trafficking

A budding actor has been jailed for his “middle man” role in drug trafficking and laundering more than $150,000 after he was busted with almost 100g of meth.

A budding actor from Modbury Heights has been jailed for three years for his “middle man” role in trafficking methamphetamine.

Steven Joseph Jacques, 35, appeared in the District Court of South Australia on Friday morning charged with dealing with money valued at more than $100,000, trafficking and dealing with the proceeds of crime, to which he pleaded guilty to in September last year.

On Friday, the court heard Jacques was arrested on August 8, 2018 following an Australian Federal Police raid.

Officers found a total 97.7 grams of methamphetamine at his Paralowie property – which had a street value of nearly $49,000 – $132,000 in a Holden Captiva in the driveway and $20,000 in an airconditioning vent kept as an “emergency float”.

The court head Jacques’ offending was “informed” by his undiagnosed ADHD. Picture: Facebook.

The court heard he was holding cash of up to $50,000 a week, was making a profit of about $3500 a week and he still owes between $50,000 to $60,000 to suppliers.

Jailing him for three years and one month, Judge Joana Fuller said Jacques’s trafficking was between that of a street level dealer and at the “top of the drug trafficking hierarchy”, and was motivated by greed and funding a particular lifestyle.

“Your offending was part of what was clearly a significant and ongoing drug trafficking enterprise, one which well exceeded that was necessary to fund your drug habit,” Judge Fuller said.

However, she said Jacques only held the $132,000 for a “very short duration” until he was given further directions and he was “not the instigator” of the offending and had a “minor” role.

“In my view this was not a sophisticated example of money laundering, it did not involve any planning on your part,” she said.

She said he was a “long way down the path to rehabilitation” and his diagnosis of ADHD was a “turning point in your life”, no longer craving meth to “calm you down”.

She found the diagnosis “informed” his offending to some degree.

“It is a great tragedy that your offending will mean a separation from the stable family life that you’ve built,” she said.

Steven Joseph Jacques was jailed for three years. Picture: Facebook.

The court heard his partner had no idea about his offending and drug use until he called her in 2018 after he’d been arrested.

“She had great difficulty coming to terms with the drug use you’d hidden from her and your drug dealing and money laundering,” she said.

She gave him an ultimatum that he must stay clean if he wanted any chance of maintaining a relationship with her.

His partner said Jacques, once free of drugs, began to behave “erratically” and was unable to focus on a task and was forgetful, the court heard.

He was eventually diagnosed with adult ADHD, and the change in his behaviour was “profound”, becoming more focused, less impulsive and less disorganised and had become a dedicated father, with his daughter giving him a “sense of purpose”.

He had also found work as an actor in an award-winning film last year, also appearing in a wine advertisement and in a short film to be entered at this year’s Adelaide Film Festival.

Setting a non-parole period of nine months, Judge Fuller accepted his remorse was genuine, there had been a “nexus” between his undiagnosed ADHD, drug use and offending, and he had made “concerted efforts” to address his addiction.