17-year-old dealer exposes SA’s teen drug culture

A FORMER private school student has given stunning evidence about his descent into serious crime, telling a judge how he made $1000 a week as a 15-year-old buying and selling cannabis and ecstasy over social media and encrypted phone apps.

• Teenager ‘imported 1kg of drugs to set up trafficking business’
• 16-year-old drug trafficker will be sentenced as an adult
• Teen drug dealer claims he sold, but didn’t import, 1kg of ecstasy

CHILDREN as young as 15 are making $1000 a week buying and selling ice, cannabis and ecstasy over social media and encrypted phone apps, a court has heard.

The District Court has been given unprecedented insight into the state’s teen drug culture by a former private school student who trafficked in cannabis and ecstasy.

He described his slide into addiction, and how selling to feed his habit became both a lucrative business and an ongoing obsession with infamous international criminals.

Judge Paul Rice gave The Advertiser permission to attend the closed court hearing and publish the boy’s testimony, saying it was of great public interest — and concern.

“There’s no doubt that legally he’s a child but, in 99.9 per cent of other respects, he’s not — he’s a practised drug dealer,” he said.

The 17-year-old, who can only be identified as “D”, dropped out of one of Adelaide’s top private schools last year as his addiction consumed his life.

He has pleaded guilty to trafficking almost 1kg of ecstasy, contained in two parcels mailed to his house in 2016.

He also performed Google searches on “how to launder money” and where to “buy 5kg of MDMA”, and wrote a Facebook status reading “I am a drug dealer”.

D faces a maximum life sentence because trafficking is a federal offence, exempt from state laws that require the “guidance and protection” of youths be prioritised over punishment.

On Friday, he took the witness stand to explain his actions and ask the court to show leniency, saying he was 15 when he became addicted to cannabis and ecstasy.

“It wasn’t the ecstasy that was the bad part, it was the cannabis that got me ... I always needed weed,” he said.

“I took one or two ecstasy pills every three days and smoked $70 worth of weed a week.”

He said he quickly became involved in Adelaide’s drug scene.

“I got added to a Facebook group for people selling drugs, and that helped me find drugs to buy,” he said.

“There was weed, there was ecstasy and pills, ice as well ... these are private Facebook groups ... people then contact you by Facebook Messenger.

“I dribbed and drabbed in selling ecstasy ... I’d purchase 50 tablets or less, paying $8 a tablet, sell them for $10 each and make between $500 and $1000 a week.”

D said both suppliers and buyers would meet in public parks as arranged via Facebook or the encrypted messaging app Wickr.

“My ecstasy sales increased as more of my friends found out I was selling ... kids two years older than me at school, and graduates, then told their friends,” he said.

“The police didn’t come into my head at that time ... I was always high ... I was so involved in the drug life that I didn’t care about my family or what I did.”

He said the internet searches were “dumb, silly” things he did online, while the Facebook status had seemed a “hilarious” joke while under the influence.

“My life was drugs at that time ... everything I was doing was about drugs, or better ways to get high, or famous drug dealers because everything about drugs fascinated me,” he said.

“I love reading, I love information ... if something intrigued me, I’d read about it — articles on Buzzfeed, on Reddit ... I was honestly just so curious.

“(Prosecutors) make it out to seem like I was searching these things to find out how to (import drugs) — realistically, I was just clicking on things to find out about them.”

Asked whether he had ever attempted to import drugs, or arranged delivery of the 1kg of ecstasy, he replied: “Not once in my life, no — never.”

“Importing drugs into Australia isn’t of interest to me,” he said.

D said a man he befriended on social media — whose identity is suppressed — was responsible for the packages.

“We met up and he told me he would offer me a sum of money to accept a package ... to me that didn’t sound hard, it sounded good, it was free money,” he said.

“He said it would be drugs, I didn’t think anything of it ... I thought ‘it’s just the mail, it’s fine’.”

That package was intercepted by Australian Federal Police, leading to a raid on his house, his arrest and the discovery of more drugs in his car and room.

Asked what his level of involvement with the drug scene was at present, he replied: “Zero.”

“I completely cut off ... the raid was the biggest shock of my life ... I was 16, it scared the hell out of me,” he said.

Judge Rice remanded D on continuing bail to face court again in February.

Follow @SeanFewster