Prosecutors appeal three-year, seven-month sentence given to Ironside drug courier Stuart Farquhar
Prosecutors are appealing a three-year jail term for shifting $9m in meth because they say it could lead to lesser sentences for other Ironside criminals.
Police & Courts
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A young drug courier sentenced to three years in prison for trafficking more than $9m worth of methamphetamine was a major part of an organised-crime syndicate, prosecutors allege.
Stuart Duncan Farquhar was one of dozens of people arrested on June 7, 2021, when the encrypted AN0M communication platform was disabled.
Farquhar was sentenced last year to four years, six months and 19 days in prison with a non-parole period of three years, seven months and 22 days for four counts of large commercial drug trafficking and three counts of commercial trafficking.
He is now set to become a benchmark for how other people arrested as part of Operation Ironside will be sentenced after the Director of Public Prosecutions asked the Court of Appeal to increase his “manifestly inadequate” sentence.
In written submissions to the court the DPP asked for a greater sentence to be imposed in Farquhar in part to “serve as a precedent for subsequent matters before the court in this state”.
Ryan Williams, prosecuting, told the court Farquhar had been involved in the receipt and distribution of 20kg and 10kg of methamphetamine in two separate batches from NSW.
The value of the 20kg shipment if sold in ounces would be around $9m and even higher if sold at street value.
Mr Williams said the jail sentence imposed for all the offending would not have been long enough that quantity of drugs.
“That alone should have garnered a sentence well in excess of what was imposed as a whole sentence,” he said.
Farquhar was also linked to the receipt of more than a kilo of brown heroin – which then could not be sold by his syndicate and was returned to the supplier.
When police raided Farquhar’s house they located 2.3kg of methamphetamine with an estimated value of around $1m as well as 686g of heroin, the remains of a previous 1kg delivery.
Mr Williams argued Farquhar was fully aware of the extent of the criminal operations of the syndicate he worked for.
“This was not simply somebody who’s picking up unmarked packages in a courier van and dropping them off; he was making or attempting to make business decisions within the syndicate,” he said.
AN0M messages read to the court showed Farquhar asked to be paid in drugs rather than cash so he could start his own operation.
That request was denied by men alleged to be at the top of the syndicate.
Paul Charman, for Farquhar, urged the court not to increase his client’s sentence.
He said there was no evidence in the thousands of messages seized that Farquhar, who himself had a crippling drug habit, was being paid excessively for his work,
A psychologist who analysed Farquhar noted in his report he was amazed the young man had not died of a drug overdose.
The court will hand down its judgment at a date yet to be set.
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