Jonathon Paul Reed jailed for trafficking drugs
A “low-level dealer” has been jailed after police found a substantial amount of meth in a rental car after conducting a welfare check on the man.
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A “low-level street dealer” has been jailed after police found him asleep behind the wheel almost two years ago.
Jonathon Paul Reed, 40, was sentenced in the Adelaide District Court earlier this month on one count of trafficking methamphetamine.
The court heard just before 2pm on August 5, 2021, police officers observed Reed asleep behind the wheel of a hire car.
“The police decided, quite properly, to conduct a welfare check on you,” Judge Paul Muscat said during sentencing.
“As a result of their observations of you, they decided to search the hire vehicle for drugs.”
Inside a bag behind the driver’s seat was $525 in cash and a large plastic resealable bag containing 19.2g of crystals of which 10.4g was methylamphetamine.
In Reed’s wallet, police found $2,744 in cash and a further $200 in cash in his pocket.
The court heard Reed’s had a troubling history with the drug, relying on it during tough times.
“You and your former partner were heavily involved in using methamphetamine and that relationship ended in 2012,” Judge Muscat said.
“You have faced difficulties having contact with your children as a result of your former partner’s manipulation.
“This distress has contributed to you using methamphetamine as a coping mechanism to deal with that distress.
“Much of your past offending is connected to your addiction to methamphetamine and a need to feed that addiction, as I have already observed.”
The court heard at one point Reed was consuming about half a gram of methamphetamine daily over a period of several months.
“Based on all of the evidence, I am satisfied that you were a typical low-level street dealer in methylamphetamine, motivated largely by your need to have sufficient methylamphetamine to use,” Judge Muscat said.
Reed was sentenced to three years, nine months and 18 days imprisonment.
The sentence was backdated to August 31 of this year, when Reed was arrested for other offences still before the court.
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