Geelong parents before court on serious drug charges
Not every mum and pop shop or small business is legal. From career crooks to those who fell on hard times, the Addy lifts the lid on parents involved in Geelong’s drug trade.
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Not every mum and pop shop or small business is legal.
From career crooks to those who fell on hard times, many of those involved in Geelong’s underworld are parents.
The Geelong Advertiser has trawled the archives over the past year to lift the lid on the folks involved in city’s drug trade.
Sean Woods
Father of two Sean Woods was in “the business” of selling drugs, despite telling a psychologist that drugs had “ruined” his life.
Woods was last week jailed for eight months, minus 139 days already served, after pleading guilty to a litany of charges including drug trafficking and assault.
Woods trafficked ice between February and June this year, and bit a police officer during an attempt to transport him to Melbourne Assessment Prison on June 29.
The officer Woods bit wrote in a victim impact statement the incident had a lasting impact on him, describing it as “one of the lowest acts anyone can do”.
The court heard Woods had been diagnosed with PTSD and borderline personality disorder, which impacted his decision making.
Upon release, Woods planned to reside in Melton, the court heard.
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Mark Pollard
Father of one Mark Pollard was nabbed when police found almost 80kg of 1,4 butanediol in a storage unit in Breakwater in July 2022.
Boasting a criminal career more akin to an addict, Pollard was convicted and jailed for a maximum of four years and nine months for, among other charges, trafficking a commercial quantity of “bute” – a drug which has been sweeping Geelong’s streets.
The court heard Pollard had received seven prison sentences since 2012.
While there was no evidence of sales or the business side of trafficking, the quantity alone indicated Pollard’s involvement in “serious drug trafficking”.
Pollard’s lawyer asserted he was just storing the drugs for someone else in the storage unit, which was rented under another name.
Pollard also pleaded guilty to stealing ammunition from a Highton home during a burglary.
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Jeffrey Papalia
Leopold dad Jeffrey Papalia was no stranger to being busted growing cannabis when he fronted Geelong Magistrates Court in September.
Police had raided his home in May, and eight cannabis plants – four recently harvested and four in a garden bed – growing in a shed, along with a set-up for drying the plants in his bedroom.
The total weight of the cannabis was 29kg.
Papalia’s lawyer told the court her client turned the dried cannabis into an oil, or used it in baked goods to treat chronic pain.
He was placed on a good behaviour bond for two years, without conviction, with Papalia being warned he was on the police’s “radar”.
The 57-year-old previously appeared in the County Court in 2021, after police siezed 15 cannabis plants – about 44kg – at his home.
Papalia was placed on a community corrections order (CCO) for two years.
Bradley Witherden
Financial pressures led Bradley Witherden to grow cannabis in his factory in Norlane, but his attempt to make a little bit of extra money “failed in a spectacular way”.
The father of three, including Brisbane Lion Alex Witherden, fronted Geelong Magistrates Court in May after he was caught growing cannabis.
Police had followed a trail of cannabis leaves back to his factory after a burglary.
Police located a hydroponic grow room in an upstairs room of the building and siezed cannabis, including 11 10-week-old plants.
The court heard Witherden had not intended to traffic the drug, but instead sell the oil.
His “DIY” setup was constructed following YouTube videos but he “didn’t know what he was doing entirely” and hadn’t yet worked out how to extract the oil, his lawyer said.
The impetus for the crop was a debt “well into the six figures”, the court heard.
Magistrate Urfa Masood said Witherden made “frankly an inexplicable decision” to grow cannabis.
She placed Witherden on a 12-month community corrections order, without conviction.
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Tyler Gee
Mother of two Tyler Gee was found slumped over the wheel of her Holden Captiva, along with digital scales, deal bags and five pages of notes of drug sales.
Gee appeared in Geelong Magistrates Court in April, where she pleaded guilty to a number of charges including trafficking MDMA, ice and GHB.
The court heard she was arrested after being observed in her car, which had its lights on, in Norlane on December 9, 2023.
Along with the scales and 500 deal bags, police found $355 in cash and a bottle containing 140ml of GHB.
Gee’s lawyer, Matilda Jones, told the court Gee’s life had spiralled over a period of six months.
However, after spending three days in custody, Gee, who now lives in Sunshine, had been taken her rehabilitation seriously and “walked the walk”.
“She is making a 180 on her lifestyle,” Ms Jones told the court in April.
She was later sentenced her to a community corrections order without conviction.
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Jed Jeanes
Father of five Jed Jeanes had his own concreting business before the “catastrophe” of his choices led to him selling drugs and a shotgun to undercover police officers.
The Mount Duneed man was sentenced March this year to four years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of two years and six months – minus 225 days of pre-sentence detention – on charges of unauthorised disposal of a firearm, possessing a trafficable quantity of firearms, possessing the proceeds of crime and multiple counts of both multiple counts of drug trafficking and possessing drugs.
Jeanes met two undercover officers outside the Geelong police station on May 31, 2022 and struck up a conversation with them.
He gave them a deodorant bottle filled with 1,4 butanediol and gave the officers a tour of his property.
They later bought two litres of bute for $5550 and a shotgun for $7000.
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Adam Kosic
Father of two and former Boeing worker, Adam Kosic, rented out his garage to cocaine traffickers after being propositioned in a pub when he fell on hard times.
Kosic pleaded guilty in the Geelong Magistrates Court to three charges, possessing and trafficking cocaine and dealing with the proceeds of a crime.
The aerospace worker was convicted and fined $1000.
The court heard police found hundreds of grams of cutting agents in Kosic’s garage, along with cocaine, deal bags, scales and a homemade hydraulic press used to package the drug.
Kosic’s lawyer, Simon Northeast, told the court the widower was a “patsy” and “scapegoat” after renting out his garage to make some money.
The court heard Kosic was complaining about his finances in a pub when he was overhead and received an offer he “went along with”.
Magistrate John Bentley told Kosic he’d “been played”.
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James Rowles
Bell Post Hill father of five James Rowles turned to trafficking ice to fund his own drug addiction.
Rowles appeared in the County Court in November last year, where he was sentenced to 181 days jail, reckoned as time served, along with an 18-month community corrections order (CCO).
Rowles, who now resides in the Bendigo area, had pleaded guilty to robbery, trafficking ice, handling stolen goods and possessing a controlled weapon without lawful excuse.
Judge Gamble accepted that Rowles intended to sell the drug to fund his own use of the substance.
Rowles commenced using drugs when he was 16, developing to using ice in his late 20s, coinciding with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder in 2013.
Since being granted bail, Judge Gamble said had made strides to turn his life around, gaining employment and certifications and remaining drug free.
“You have good family support and two young children who rely on you and that should act as a continuing motivating factor to remain drug and crime free,” Judge Gamble said.
However, Judge Gamble warned Rowles he must “remain vigilant” if he wanted to achieve long-term success in overcoming a serious drug problem.
READ MORE.
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