Brandon John Verban found guilty by jury on drug trafficking and money laundering charges
A man had bizarre excuses to offer up to a jury for why he was found in a McDonald’s car park with a large amount of meth. See the photos.
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A man busted with a large amount of meth in a fast food car park had bizarre excuses for his illegal hustle, including drug money being from gambling wins.
Brandon John Verban, 30, was found guilty by a jury of two counts of drug trafficking and one count of money laundering after a trial in the District Court.
Greg Dudzinski, for the prosecution, told the court in his opening statement that police searched Verban’s Campbelltown address on March 24, 2021.
Police located 35g of mixed methamphetamine, valued up to $17,600, found in a wardrobe and $73,620 in a vacuum sealed bag in the bedside table.
The court heard a civilian found Mr Verban slumped back in his seat near a roundabout in Semaphore Park on May 20, 2021.
She called police who located Verban in the Westlakes McDonald’s car park.
The court heard police searched his car and found a Gucci bag which contained a plastic resealable bag with 132g of mixed methamphetamine, valued at $39,600.
The court heard a cash counting machine, numerous plastic resealable bags and scales were located in a search of Verban’s house.
A Samsung mobile phone was seized in the search and analysed.
Messages were found on Wickr – an encrypted messaging platform – with one user messaging: “Hi mate are you able to help me out I’m after some credit until later on in the week, if can’t, that’s okay”.
“I’m not doing it any more bro, too much heat ATM,” Verban replied.
The court heard Signal – another encrypted mobile application – was also analysed, with a message from Verban saying: “If you have any customers you want me to take care of that buy fulls or halves I can do that and I can give you a cut out of the money”.
In his closing statement, Mr Dudzinski said the only logical explanation for the large amounts of methamphetamine found was that Verban was selling it to offset the cost of his own habit.
The court heard $458,799 from Verban’s accounts were from sources that couldn’t be identified, including $189,475 in deposits from various individuals.
Mr Dudzinski asked the jury to reject the explanation for Verban’s unexplained wealth being he was a brilliant gambler, as his casino funds revealed he lost far more often than he won.
“The defendant did (lose) to the tune of nearly $200,000 for that relevant period when he was using his casino card,” he said.
Chris Allen, for Verban, told the court his client had explanations for what “halves” and “fulls” meant in the text message he sent.
“He explained that they were wine barrels, he told you he bought a whole bunch of wine barrels that he imported from America,” he said.
Mr Allen said Verban also had innocent explanations for the items found at his house – including using the cash counter to count his casino winnings and the extra phones being for his children.
Mr Allen told the court Verban didn’t know the methamphetamine was in his car and it had been used by other people in the days prior to his arrest.
Verban will next face court in September for sentencing submissions.
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