A growing acceptance of, and apathy toward, illicit drugs is costing lives, fuelling crime and turning good people into “utter monsters”, South Australia’s top drug cop warns.

And while the coronavirus pandemic has slowed methamphetamine supply into the state, it has failed to quell the increasing popularity of the “really dangerous” liquid hallucinogen fantasy.

Serious and Organised Crime Branch officer-in-charge Superintendent Stephen Taylor said a small quantity of fantasy, which he described as “a really dangerous drug”, was enough for people to overdose and die.

SCROLL DOWN TO READ HOW SEVEN RECENT CASES FARED IN COURT

He said fantasy was easy to manufacture because it did not require the sophistication of a drug lab and was incorrectly viewed by users as a “cheap, alternative high to ecstasy”.

“It takes some time to take effect on the body so some people will take some and nothing happens so they top up but it makes them overdose straight away,” Superintendent Taylor said.

“There is another drug 1,4-Butanediol, which actually converts to fantasy or GHB in the body.

“Your body actually produces GHB naturally and this is a synthetic version of it. It’s actually an industrial solvent used in the manufacture of Lycra and textiles so you’re ingesting an acid.”

Drug and Alcohol Services SA impatient withdrawal service clinical unit boss Victoria Cock said the prevalence of fantasy had increased across the state this year.

She said about 30 people dependent on the drug had been admitted to her unit so far this year.

“A few years ago we’d probably only see three a year (for fantasy),” Dr Cock said.

Superintendent Taylor said there had been a growing community acceptance of, and apathy toward, illicit drugs over the past two decades.

He said early education and early intervention programs were paramount in forming and changing attitudes towards illegal drugs.

“People shouldn’t accept that and we should do whatever we can to disrupt that and influence our youth to make sure they don’t make bad decisions,” Superintendent Taylor said.

“What we do see is people who make bad calls and make some bad choices (often end up) in the health system through emergency wards and overdose deaths.”

Superintendent Taylor said he had seen cases where people died from their first experience with illicit drugs, and warned traffickers viewed the supply of drugs as “purely business”.

“Some drugs are incredibly toxic on the body. I can’t overstate how dangerous drug use is,” he said.

“It turns relatively good, normal people into complete and utter monsters, just terrible people. Illicit drugs shatter families and destroy communities. It’s just not worth it.”

He warned prospective drug suppliers about the lifelong effects of being caught trafficking – regardless of who was the recipient.

“If you go out and you’ve got two pills and you give one pill to your best friend you’re now a drug trafficker, you’re a drug supplier, and the courts will see it as that,” he said.

Here are seven recent District Court cases in which party drug dealers discovered how seriously the law treats their crime. In most cases they are now serving time in jail.

WALID EL-SAYED

Six weeks after being let out on home detention bail for drug offences, Walid El-Sayed was pulled over by the police.

The car was unregistered, for a start. But then the police found 4.65kg of fantasy.

A few months earlier, in November 2020, they found 3kg of fantasy at El-Sayed’s home, as well as 70.8g of ice.

He came from a reasonably well-off family with a crash repair business. His family even helped pay off his drug debt – but it didn’t stop him reoffending.

The court heard El-Sayed was not a street dealer, but a courier who helped make sure there was a steady stream of drugs available for sale.

“In each case your conduct is more serious than that of a street-level trafficker and, indeed, couriers are integral parts of the commercial production and marketing of, and then the distribution of, this very harmful drug,” Judge Simon Stretton said.

“Further, in light of your previous experience you knew exactly how valuable and serious the drug you were couriering was.

“It is not as if, as we often hear in this court, you were asked by someone to take something down to the pub and you were not exactly sure what drug it was nor how serious your conduct was. You were very clear as to those factors.”

Judge Stretton said El-Sayed started using drugs after he split with his pregnant wife who returned to Sydney.

But mounting drug debts gave him cause to start moving the drugs in an effort to fund his own habit.

El-Sayed was sentenced to eight years in jail for the drugs found at his house and five years and five months for what was in his car.

Judge Stretton ordered they be served consecutively – putting El-Sayed behind bars for 13 years and five months. He set a non-parole period of six years and nine months.

TYSON JAMES WOODFORDE

As police officers swooped to arrest Tyson James Woodforde at his Prospect home, the 36-year-old asked politely if he could use his phone to call his parents.

While police searched his house, Woodforde, desperate to cover up his extensive dealing of the party drug fantasy, reset his phone to delete all incriminating information.

But the audacious move was not enough to prevent police laying multiple counts of trafficking a commercial quantity of a controlled drug.

Woodforde, a once semi-professional skateboarder who represented Australia, was arrested at the Stamford Grand Hotel with two drink bottles of clear, thick liquid on September 24, 2019.

The bottles contained 1.324kg of fantasy, which is typically sold in 1ml or 2ml doses. The potential street value of the drugs was estimated to be between $3300 and $4000.

Woodforde spent time in custody and was released on home-detention bail but resumed his drug use and subsequently his drug trafficking.

He was arrested again on March 3 this year, when police found a further 1.68kg of fantasy hidden in the fireplace.

Woodforde admitted that the two offences were not isolated and formed part of a pattern of drug dealing that was designed to feed his own crippling habit.

District Court Judge Ian Press concluded in his sentencing remarks that Woodforde’s drug use had started sporadically but spiralled into “an all-consuming addiction”.

“That you – as a 36-year-old man with a supportive and loving family, a good education and at times a strong work ethic – have arrived at this point is regrettably further evidence of the devastation these drugs bring to the community,” Judge Press said.

Woodforde was jailed for three years, nine months and four days with a non-parole period of two years and two months.

ADAM GUISEPPE VALLELONGA

Glazed and bloodshot eyes and the smell of alcohol on his breath drew the attention of police to Adam Guiseppe Vallelonga at a Bonython Park music festival.

Police the day before had warned attendees not to bring illicit drugs to the Listen In Festival but Vallelonga, 25, did not heed their advice on October 6, 2019.

Officers stopped and searched him, finding a bottle of Banana Boat sunscreen down the front of his shorts. It had been modified to hide 50 capsules.

A further 20 capsules were found in his shorts. The 70 capsules contained 5.3g of MDMA.

Vallelonga told police there were more tablets at his home. Officers discovered 30 capsules in his bedroom containing 1.9g of MDMA.

Judge Ian Press said Vallelonga, who pleaded guilty to two counts of trafficking a controlled drug, bought the capsules intending to use some and sell the rest for a profit of $6 each.

He said Vallelonga had battled a growing gambling problem that emerged in 2014 while living and working in Melbourne and resulted in him losing all his money a year later.

“You used gambling in the same way you used illicit drugs – as an attempt to fill a void in your life,” Judge Press said.

“This tendency toward excessive gambling is directly intertwined with the circumstances of this offending. Prior to the festival you had again spent all of your money gambling.

“It was at that point you formed an intention to sell MDMA at the festival to both recoup some of your gambling losses and to fund your personal use.”

Judge Press said Vallelonga, until the age of 19, had extensive chemotherapy for optical tumours that potentially explained aspects of unhappiness in his teenage years.

“While you candidly admit that you continued to use drugs for a few weeks after your arrest, you then took stock of your life and determined to make positive changes,” Judge Press said.

Judge Press jailed Vallelonga for two years, one month and seven days with a non-parole period of 12 months.

He suspended the sentence upon Vallelonga entering a $100 two-year good-behaviour bond, noting his contrition, offending insights and commitment towards rehabilitation.

ANDREW JOHN FRASER

It was a workplace injury that ultimately brought Andrew John Fraser undone.

He had been working as a security guard, but ended up out of action for 18 months.

His spare time was spent at the pub – where, in 2015, his drinking buddies introduced him to cocaine. That soon turned into a $1500 a week habit.

Two years later, Fraser picked up two packages – an Uber Eats bag containing an unknown amount of methamphetamine and nearly a kilogram of cocaine.

He took it to a friend’s place where they broke it down for sale – and indulged in the drug themselves. Unfortunately for Fraser, his friend’s shed was bugged.

Police then caught him some months later dealing cocaine to another friend, which his lawyer argued was just him disposing of drugs he no longer wanted because he was sober.

Not long after his arrest, Fraser started a successful painting business.

Judge Sophie David told Fraser he was involved with a “highly sophisticated and lucrative drug syndicate” and that the cocaine he couriered was worth $300,000 on the street.

“Whilst I accept that you were not directly involved in onselling the cocaine and that you did not receive monetary payment for your role, you still obtained a financial benefit by receiving cocaine for your own use to defray the cost of your own considerable drug habit,” Judge David said.

Fraser was sentenced to three years, one month and 24 days behind bars with a non-parole period of 15 months.

JARRAD MCDONALD

In a car park on a quiet side street off Adelaide’s premier nightclub strip, Jarrad McDonald was given something in a small bag, which he then put into his jeans.

It was after midnight on February 8, 2020, and about 10 minutes later two other people approached McDonald, who showed them something from his pocket.

Five minutes after that, another two people arrived and McDonald again reached into his pocket and placed the contents into the hand of one of those people.

One person whom McDonald had earlier showed an item returned to the car park, tapped him on the shoulder and placed a $50 note in his hand.

McDonald reached into his pocket before the pair shook hands. Little did he know that the entire saga was recorded by CCTV cameras.

Police attended the car park, where they tried to search McDonald. The first person seen with him was searched and found in possession of a single capsule of MDMA or ecstasy.

McDonald was arrested and taken to the city watch-house, where officers found a plastic bag in his jeans with 23 MDMA capsules and $360 cash in his wallet.

Judge Paul Muscat said McDonald told police “a pack of lies” about the drugs, which he claimed he had found in a toilet at the Dog and Duck nightclub.

He said McDonald denied partaking in drug transactions and that the $50 note was from a friend who owed him money and the $360 in his wallet was his savings.

“Unsurprisingly, the police did not accept what you were telling them, as the evidence clearly revealed that you were trafficking in drugs,” Judge Muscat said.

“It does you no credit that you lied to the police in the face of such overwhelming evidence.”

Judge Muscat said McDonald, who pleaded guilty to trafficking a controlled drug, was one of many young people who came before the courts not appreciating the seriousness of the crime.

“Like many others in your position you would not have realised the heavy penalties applicable to what you were doing, nor that the Supreme Court has indicated a standard penalty for such a crime is imprisonment for a period between four to seven years,” he said.

“You look surprised and shocked but I am afraid that is the reality of the situation you now find yourself in. Furthermore, you will always have on your record the fact that you were convicted of drug trafficking, which will affect many aspects of your future life.”

Judge Muscat said McDonald sold drugs to his friends in order to support his habit, describing his dealing as “not sophisticated” and “fortunately for you, not to strangers”.

He jailed McDonald for three years and four months with a non-parole period of 14 months but suspended the sentence upon him entering a $500 15-month good-behaviour bond.

“I hope that you have realised just how close you came to being sent to prison for what you did, even though at the time you probably didn’t think that what you were doing would lead you to potentially serving a prison sentence,” Judge Muscat said.

“You need to let your friends know that if they are thinking about selling drugs, as you were doing, that if they get caught like you were, they face a similar sentence to that which you received with no guarantees that the sentence will be suspended.”

JASPER JAMES MARSHALL

A young carpenter played a principal role in shipping parcels of cocaine from the United States into numerous post office boxes in the names of other people in South Australia.

Jasper James Marshall, 23, pleaded guilty to importing a marketable quantity of a border controlled drug, and trafficking a controlled drug.

In the District Court, Judge Paul Slattery said Marshall, with two co-offenders, arranged the importation of cocaine from the United States of America into Australia in February 2018.

In May 2018, three parcels were lodged for mailing from an unknown person to Australia Post mailboxes in South Australia.

“The consigned details for all three parcels was declared to be a photographic business and the contents of the parcels were described as photographs,” Judge Slattery said.

The parcels were intercepted by the Australian Border Force on May 7. Each parcel contained cocaine filled in a heat-sealed bag.

The 330g of cocaine in the three parcels equated to a street value of up to $110,000.

Up to 15g of cocaine worth more than $4000 was located in shoes inside Marshall’s bedroom when police searched his address a month later.

The qualified carpenter and former Master Builders worker was diagnosed with ADHD and began selling his medication in high school, the court heard.

Judge Slattery sentenced Marshall on the basis his principal reason for offending was for financial reward.

“In order to facilitate the imports and to avoid detection you leased numerous post office boxes in the names of other people.”

Marshall was sentenced to three years, 11 months and 23 days in prison, with a non-parole period of one year, 11 months and 26 days.

MATTHEW BUTLER

A former Heathfield High School student was offered a lifeline by District Court Judge Paul Cuthbertson, who told him people who waste their money and minds playing with drugs “don’t amount to much”.

Matthew Butler, 23, was sentenced for two counts of trafficking in a controlled drug in the District Court in November.

Butler was found in possession of several press-sealed bags containing a mix of MDMA and a quantity of cannabis during a traffic stop at Mt Barker in October 2019.

A search of his house led police to a total quantity of 23g of MDMA, drug paraphernalia, tick lists, a safe with cash and 140g of cannabis.

Mr Cuthbertson said Butler’s circumstances were rare in trafficking cases.

“He was born in this state and he has a family which is somewhat unusual in this court, in these types of proceedings, to remain together,” Mr Cuthbertson said.

Butler had no prior history of offending but began smoking marijuana in Year 10 which he described as a turning point in his life.

“For a long time he was in denial about the seriousness of his habit,” the judge said.

Butler was sentenced to three years, four months and 24 days in prison with a two-year non-parole period – but the sentence was suspended.

“I hope this is going to be a wake-up call to you,” Judge Cuthbertson said.

“You have got the capability of making something of your life and I can tell you now that people who waste their money and their minds playing with these drugs don’t amount to much. So if that’s what you want to be, you keep on with the drugs. If you want to amount to something, save your money and get on with your life.”