A man involved in running SA’s largest drug labs in Walker Flat has told a court how he got into the trade to support his family
A FAMILY man involved in running the state’s biggest clandestine drugs lab at a small Murraylands town has apologised to locals, who fear it has tarnished the town’s reputation.
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A FAMILY man involved in running the state’s biggest clandestine drugs laboratory out of a property at a small Murraylands town has written a letter of apology to locals, who feared it now had a reputation as drug producers.
But Amedeo Macchiavelli, 34, has told the District Court he got involved in the drug trade to support his family, pay for a gym and for IVF treatment.
On the eve of his trial last year, Macchiavelli, of Eastwood, admitted two counts of trafficking in a large quantity of a controlled drug and a further trafficking in a commercial amount charge.
He admitted his role in the lab, which was discovered at a property in Walker Flat, 115km east of Adelaide, in February 2014.
On Wednesday, his lawyer Mark Griffin QC told the court that Macchiavelli had always attempted to provide for his family.
He said he did this by running a business – a gym.
“He would attempt to use whatever spare income he had to support his mother and father and make their life more comfortable,” he said.
“The combination of influences on him meant that he had always accepted a significant level of responsibility towards others in his family.
“Perhaps unwittingly he allowed these pressures to build and build to the point where he became tempted through some of his associates to participate in the Walker Flat offences.
“It was a way for him to secure and earn some money that was going to be used to essentially pay for the family-related expenses that were accumulating.
Mr Griffin said Macchiavelli, 34, was also paying for expensive IVF treatment.
He said he was not just after “easy money”.
“But he was swamped by the emotional and financial pressures on him during this period,” he said.
“Mr Macchiavelli, as you can see by his apology letters, so deeply regrets the fact that he allowed himself to think in the way he did.
“He sincerely wishes he had taken stock of what he had and what he was going to lose by doing what he did.”
Walker Flat residents wrote a community impact statement, saying they feared they were now “looked on as druggies” while raising fears “extremely hazardous” and corrosive material could have been dumped in the adjacent Murray River.
Serious and Organised Crime Branch detectives last year charged three men over the drug haul, which uncovered more than 190,000 ecstasy – or MDMA – and NBOMe pills, a commercial pill press and precursor chemicals capable of making almost $50 million worth of methamphetamine.
Co-offender Anton Pasquale Gerardis – whose grandfather owned the property and two-storey shack for 18 years – admitted to two charges of trafficking in a commercial quantity of drugs and a further manufacturing charge in February.