Former SA Police worker Eamon Dahlgren to serve home detention sentence for dealing cocaine
An SA Police employee who dreamt of being a lawyer before he was caught selling cocaine in an undercover sting has learned his fate for the crimes.
Police & Courts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
An SA Police employee who was captured in a covert sting selling and supplying cocaine from his car has been ordered to serve a three-year jail term on home detention.
Eamon Dahlgren, 26, of Mawson Lakes was captured dealing cocaine after police anti-corruption branch detectives launched an investigation, codenamed Operation Kilo, and installed an audiovisual recording device in his black BMW.
In sentencing, District Court Judge Heath Barklay said Dahlgren’s offending was “all the more egregious” because he was working for the expiation branch of SA Police at the time of his offending.
He said abuse and sale of illicit drugs “cause great social harm” and Dahlgren was “an active street level dealer”.
“You were motivated to deal drugs to fuel your expensive drug habit. At the same time, in my view, you were motivated by financial gain.”
He said an undercover operative approached Dahlgren at a bus stop where they exchanged social media handles and discussed the price of cocaine.
In one message, Dahlgren told the operative that “cocaine is $350 in Adelaide and that if (she) was paying $400, she didn’t know the right people”.
Dahlgren has pleaded guilty to 14 counts of drug trafficking and one count of supplying cocaine over five weeks last year.
“The amounts sold ranged from half a gram – you handed over bags marked .5 in black texta for around $300-$350 – to about 1.7g for $600, otherwise known as a half ball,” he said.
“In those cases you handed over bags marked with ‘hb’ in texta.”
The court has previously heard Dahlgren was using the funds from his dealing to fund “indulgent and hedonistic lifestyle”, and that social media images depicted him in designer clothing.
Judge Barklay said during a search of Dahlgren’s home after his arrest on October 14, 2022, officers found 5g of cocaine, $1000 cash, two electronic scales and a large amount of plastic resealable bags.
He said Dahlgren had turned to drugs because he had difficulty coping with his grandmother’s death and the breakdown of an eight-year relationship with his former partner.
“While initially able to control your level of use, it progressively increased to a point where it became problematic and difficult to sustain financially,” Judge Barklay said.
“It was then that you made the fateful decision to sell cocaine.”
He said Dahlgren, a Trinity College and UniSA law and commerce double degree graduate, was young but “certainly should have been sufficiently mature to make better choices”.
Judge Barklay said the task of sentencing Dahlgren was “finely balanced” due to the positive steps he had taken since his arrest, including obtaining full-time employment elsewhere, counselling and his abstinence from drugs.
After a reduction for his guilty pleas, Judge Barklay imposed a jail term of three years and three months with a 20-month non-parole period. He said multiple reasons, including his lack of priors and excellent prospects of rehabilitation, meant Dahlgren could serve the term on home detention.
‘Not safe for us’: Armed siege ends with man’s arrest
An armed siege in one of Adelaide’s most affluent suburbs has ended with a man’s arrest.
Tobacco arson attacks spark fears of new SA underworld crime war
Tensions among rival interstate organised crime gangs over the lucrative tobacco trade are spilling into Adelaide, sparking warnings we are “on the cusp of a new war”.