Houshang Naroie jailed for seven years for role as courier, assistant and ‘general dog’s body’ in hidden $18.3 million SA drug lab
He was the assistant in Adelaide’s own “Breaking Bad” meth lab but, unlike Jesse Pinkman, this hapless drug offender isn’t driving off to start a new life – he’s going to spend years behind bars.
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When the TV series Breaking Bad ended, Jesse Pinkman – assistant to chemist Walter White – drove off into the sunset, free to make a new life for himself.
Real life is not as kind as fiction, however, and the man who played the assistant role in Adelaide’s own $18.3 million lab has nothing to look forward to but jail time.
On Monday, the District Court jailed Houshang Naroie – who helped produce almost 40kg of pure meth – for seven years, with a four-year non-parole period.
Judge Jane Schammer said that, while Naroie had not “cooked” the drugs himself, the role he played was key nonetheless.
“You were acting at the direction of someone higher up the chain of these criminal activities … you were a general dog’s body,” she said.
“However, you were aware of what you were doing, and did it freely and willingly.
“Yours was a key role … the sheer scale and volume of this enterprise is indicative of both the trust placed in you by those higher up the chain and your place in that hierarchy.”
Naroie, 38, pleaded guilty to manufacturing a large commercial quantity of a controlled drug.
He was arrested following the discovery of the lab in Morphett Vale, less than 900m from a school, by police in October 2018.
The lab, the biggest ever found in SA, produced 39.9kg of methylamphetamine that was 79 per cent pure – scientifically, the highest possible purity is 80 per cent.
Naroie pleaded for mercy, saying he was merely the errand boy and “fall guy” for the lab’s owners and its superstar chemist, who was flown into Adelaide from the US.
He conceded he paid for all of the lab’s materials and equipment, as well as the chemist’s food and clothing, on his own credit card.
Naroie said he kept receipts because the lab’s owners told him that he could later reclaim his expenses from them.
On Monday, Judge Schammer said Naroie had bought the lab’s supplies from stores including Kmart and Bunnings.
It had been used, she said, to crush “bricks” of methylamphetamine into powder, which was then washed with water or acetone.
The resultant liquid was left to cool, from which the drugs were scooped and then spread across sheets of alfoil, as a paste, to crystallise for sale and use.
“You are not and have never been a drug addict – as such, this offending must have been motivated by profit,” she told Naroie.
“It may also have been motivated by a misguided sense of loyalty to others in your community.”
She backdated Naroie’s sentence to the date of his arrest.