Big drug dealers to come before Cairns courts
From peddling illicit drugs from a fake Portsmith mechanic shop to sending meth in the post, this is how covert wire taps and search warrants led to the downfall of Far North drug suppliers.
Cairns
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It’s an innocuous looking crystal, but a benign appearance belies a highly addictive and insidious scourge that’s tearing at the social fabric of Cairns.
Infiltrating all parts of society, methylamphetamine, is regarded by Cairns police as the illicit drug of most concern to law enforcement.
Ravaging users by depriving them of sleep, setting off psychosis and harm associated with stimulant abuse, users are often involved in violence, property crime, drug driving, and domestic violence.
And addicts routinely commit offences outside pure drug offending, either while affected by the drug or in seeking funds to purchase it.
There are a range of measures being implemented in the Far North to reduce demand and help those addicted to dangerous drugs to break free from the addiction cycle, officer in charge of the Far North Major and Organised Crime Squad detective senior sergeant Mark Andrew said.
“But there is more work to be done and law enforcement is only one aspect of dealing with the problem,” he said.
“Police continue to invest significant resources into investigating syndicates and individuals involved in the distribution of methylamphetamine and other illicit drugs in our community.”
Snr Sgt Andrew said while there has been no drug labs located recently by police in the Cairns area information indicates that methylamphetamine is produced both within Queensland, interstate, and imported from overseas.
“If anyone has information in relation to the use, supply or trafficking of methylamphetamine in the community, I encourage them to report the matter to police via Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter how small or insignificant you believe the information to be, that information may be the piece of the puzzle police need to identify and dismantle a drug offending syndicate.”
While the number of drug offenders coming before Cairns courts is declining, crime stemming from illicit substance use remains a significant issue, and behind DV offences dominates police and court resources.
There was a high of 995 drug-related arrests in 2020 falling to 633 last year.
Police are making some headway but there are still plenty caught in a cycle of addiction and greed.
These are some of the people who faced court in 2022.
GREGORY PETER BETTS, JOEL ANTHONY OLM, CARLEE MAREE ALICE DUNCAN AND THOMAS LEONARD PETER FINES-FROST
When Gregory Peter Betts was arrested for flooding Cairns with more than half a kilo of ice he had only just been released from jail on a previous meth possession charge.
He pleaded guilty in the Cairns Supreme Court in June 2022 to trafficking methylamphetamine and a number of other drugs charges, as well as attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane said Betts paid more than $100,000 for methylamphetamine 10 times, and another eight cases where police could not determine the amount sourced.
Chief Justice Helen Bowskill sentenced him to nine years and nine months’ imprisonment, to be served cumulatively with 12 months imprisonment for attempting to pervert the course of justice.
His parole date was set at June 15, 2028.
He successfully appealed his sentence in April 2023, with the Court of Appeal reducing his imprisonment to eight years for trafficking and 12 months for attempting to pervert the course of justice, to be served cumulatively.
Betts was previously sentenced to nine years jail for trafficking ice in 2012.
But Betts wasn’t acting alone. Detectives from Cairns’ Major Organised Crime Squad, Operation Romeo Russet secured convictions against Betts’ suppliers, 29-year-old Joel Anthony Olm and 27-year-old Thomas Leonard Peter Fines-Frost, as well as other lesser players in the trafficking business.
In December 2019, Betts rented a shed in Portsmith, setting it up under the guise of a legitimate automotive workshop.
Thirty-year-old Jonathon Joseph Grimwade, the man whose job it was to run the trafficking shopfront, pleaded guilty to two counts of drug trafficking and a number of summary offences, and was sentenced to four-and-a-half years imprisonment, immediately suspended taking into account 429 days served in pre-sentence custody.
From his Eight Mile Plains base, Olm supplied substantial quantities of methylamphetamine to Betts in Cairns – up to five ounces at a time.
Olm pleaded guilty in the Cairns Supreme Court on August 24, 2021 to trafficking and knowingly having possession of dangerous things with intent to use them to commit a crime, and was sentenced to seven years imprisonment, on top of serving out an earlier sentence of five-and-a-half-year for armed robbery.
Another offender Carlee Maree Alice Duncan pleaded guilty to five counts of supplying dangerous drugs among other charges and was sentenced to three years imprisonment, with a parole release date of June 27, 2022.
At his sentencing in Cairns in March, the court heard Fines-Frost posted packages of methylamphetamine to Cairns, selling quantities ranging from half an ounce to six ounces.
He pleaded guilty to trafficking over a seven-month period between November 2019 and August 2020 and was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years prison.
MATTHEW DANIEL MUNRO
Justice James Henry told Matthew Daniel Munro, 45, “You must know on a cost-benefit analysis that crime will not pay,” and Munro’s time in jail bore that out.
Munro was assaulted by a prisoner or prisoners leaving him with a displaced fracture of his jaw requiring surgery, and subsequent seizures.
It was a likely retributive assault for surrendering his phone, which incriminated his drug supplier, the Cairns Supreme Court heard in December 2022.
Police raided Munro’s home three times in 13 months, and in court he pleaded guilty to seven drugs offences including production and possession of cannabis, trafficking dangerous drugs, possession of methamphetamine and testosterone, supply of a dangerous drug, and possession of suspected stolen items.
“The conduct of someone peddling wholesale quantities of this drug as you were, we must send a message to the community,” Justice Henry said.
He sentenced Munro to eight years imprisonment with eligibility for parole at two years. With time served Munro will be eligible for parole on July 31, 2023.
ARETHEA REINA LUCY CEDRIC
Arethea Reina Lucy Cedric, 37, was arrested after a police operation monitoring phone calls and conducting intercepts targeted drug trafficking in Cairns in April 2021.
Cedric pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis, trafficking cannabis, possessing a mobile phone in connection with the commission of trafficking a dangerous drug, and possessing pipes in connection with smoking a dangerous drug.
The court was told a man codenamed “Wanders”, based interstate, brought large quantities of cannabis to Queensland and sold to another man, David Heard, who in turn on-sold to at least four “street-level” dealers, Cedric among them.
Crown prosecutor Emily Thambyah told the court Cedric had her own base of at least 37 customers, and over nearly eight months to July 2021 she sourced 1.4kg from Heard.
During that period she received $16,282 into her bank account, Ms Thambyah told the court.
Ms Thambyah told the court Cedric’s offending was “slightly more serious than a typical street-level trafficking”, because she had continued to sell after the initial search and because it was commercially motivated.
She said the money deposited in Cedric’s account over that period was consistent with her commercial dealing.
Judge Tracy Fantin welcomed Cedric’s supporters in court, and sentenced her to two-and-a-half years’ imprisonment, wholly suspended.
“Sending you to prison today would be completely counter-productive,” she said.
LEE DANIEL QUINTON
A man who sold stolen weapons and drugs was “completely drug addled” at the time of the offending, a court heard.
Lee Daniel Quinton, 42, fronted Cairns District Court with a seven-page criminal history totalling 39 convictions.
Quinton was a recreational drug user and began associating with people dealing methamphetamine, then acted as a “go-between”, Crown prosecutor Claudia Georgouras told the court.
His offending amounted to more than 20 charges including 17 of supplying schedule one and two drugs and the rest for unlawfully supplying weapons.
The offences occurred in the seven months to July 2021, and he had advertised weapons for sale via text messages.
Police at the time were conducting an operation targeting the supply of methamphetamine in Cairns.
The offending “involved Mr Quinton being completely drug addled, and he does not have a clear memory of it,” defence counsel Rachelle Logan told the court.
Judge Anthony Rafter SC sentenced Quinton to four years imprisonment.
He will be eligible for parole in June 2023.
ZHAN CHARLES DUNN
Zhan Charles Dunn, 26, copped a six-and-a-half year prison term from Cairns Supreme Court for dealing more than $100,000 worth of methylamphetamine in Cairns.
He pleaded guilty to trafficking 595g of methamphetamine and two-and-a-half kilograms of cannabis.
The court heard a police operation intercepted Dunn’s telephone and text messages as he conducted his trafficking business.
Police executed a search warrant on September 9, 2020, and found 10g of cannabis, utensils for cannabis use and $1145 in cash in Dunn’s possession.
His total turnover during the trafficking period was $131,400, including $112,000 for meth and $19,000 for cannabis.
He was released on bail but on June 7, 2021 while staying at his grandmother’s house he took her car and some bank cards which he used to pay for petrol.
He was also sentenced for unlawfully using a motor vehicle, theft and a single charge of fraud.
Justice James Henry said the volume of Dunn’s dealing was not in the same league as some wholesalers.
It was clear Dunn offended when he was “stuck in a spiral of drug use and some associated psychiatric difficulties”, Justice Henry said.
Dunn was eligible for parole on January 24, 2023.
GREGORY PETER BETTS
When Gregory Peter Betts was arrested for flooding Cairns with more than half a kilo of ice he had only just been released from jail on a previous meth possession charge.
He pleaded guilty in the Cairns Supreme Court in June 2022 to trafficking methylamphetamine and a number of other drugs charges, as well as attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Gregory Peter Betts was sentenced for a short but intense meth trafficking business. Picture: Facebook
Gregory Peter Betts was sentenced for a short but intense meth trafficking business. Picture: Facebook
Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane said Betts paid more than $100,000 for methylamphetamine 10 times, and another eight cases where police could not determine the amount sourced.
Chief Justice Helen Bowskill sentenced him to nine years and nine months’ imprisonment, to be served cumulatively with 12 months imprisonment for attempting to pervert the course of justice.
His parole date was set at June 15, 2028.
He successfully appealed his sentence in April 2023, with the Court of Appeal reducing his imprisonment to eight years for trafficking and 12 months for attempting to pervert the course of justice, to be served cumulatively.
Betts was previously sentenced to nine years jail for trafficking ice in 2012.
MARK DAVID GLADWIN
Already serving a sentence for possessing more than $30,000 worth of methylamphetamine, the way a successful Deep North businessman came to have the drugs in the first place earned him extra time in jail.
Mark David Gladwin pleaded guilty in the Cairns Supreme Court to trafficking methylamphetamine around Cairns between February 1, 2020, and April 21, 2020.
Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane said two interventions by police did not deter him from his trafficking operation.
Former army Lieutenant and qualified computer programmer Mark David Gladwin, 41, was busted with more than 100g of ice in a Cairns hotel room. Picture: Facebook
Former army Lieutenant and qualified computer programmer Mark David Gladwin, 41, was busted with more than 100g of ice in a Cairns hotel room. Picture: Facebook
The first on April 3, 2020, where he was found in a shed at a business at Yorkeys Knob with a backpack containing an “assortment of drugs” and $1235, and the second was on April 16 where police tried to intercept him at a hotel in Cairns.
He was picked up in his hotel room on April 20, 2020, with more than 100g of pure methylamphetamine.
Gladwin’s telephone revealed the extent of his drug trafficking to police.
Justice James Henry said given the volume of the drug involved, Gladwin was clearly selling to people who were dealing.
He sentenced him to seven years in jail, taking into account 652 days already served.
JAYDE ANN DAWSON
Tears in court did not help a Far North woman who trafficked methylamphetamine over a seven-month period while she was pregnant and on bail for other drugs charges.
Jayde Ann Dawson, 35, pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in the Cairns Supreme Court.
Crown prosecutor Christian Peters told the court Dawson trafficked street level quantities of the drug over two periods in 2020.
Mr Peters said text messages on Dawson’s phone indicated she sourced methylamphetamine in larger amounts – sometimes ounces at a time – from at least eight suppliers, before breaking the drug down into smaller street level quantities to on-sell.
He said around $15,000 was deposited into Dawson’s bank account during the trafficking period.
Justice Henry sentenced her to two-and-a-half-years imprisonment with a parole release date after six months.
Dawson cried after the court was adjourned.
GLENN RAYMOND SMITH AND BRETT RAYMOND SMITH
Father-son duo of Glenn Raymond Smith, 57, and Brett Raymond Smith, 30, came to earth with a thump when police swooped on a Yorkey’s Knob apartment where they were selling cocaine and other drugs.
Police had covertly installed a listening device in Glenn Smith’s apartment, and when they knocked on the door they seized 740g of cocaine with a street value of $225,000, 340g of methylamphetamine worth $190,000, 28g of MDMA, and a substantial amount of money.
Justice James Henry sentenced Smith to nine years in prison on four counts of dangerous drug possession and one count each of drug trafficking, possessing anything used in connection with a crime and property suspected of being proceeds of an offence.
Brett Smith pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking dangerous drugs and one of contravening an order to access information from a mobile phone used to organise drug deals, between October 2020 and January 2021.
Justice Henry sentenced Brett to seven-and-a-half years for trafficking, six months for refusing to provide phone passwords and 18 months for an unrelated grievous bodily harm charge.
JOHN DURHAM WILLEY
Down $20,000 worth of “s--t” after his business partner was intercepted by police outside Townsville in May 2020, Upper Daradgee drug trafficking boss John Durham Willey was upset.
His phone had been tapped by police during Operation Sierra Footrope.
On June 13 police overheard a conversation that his business partner Mr Walpole was going to fly from Townsville to Brisbane – a move police believed was linked to discussions a month earlier about buying $74,000 of meth.
Walpole was arrested at Brisbane Airport, where he was found with $84,100 of cash, cryo-vacced and concealed on his body.
After Walpole was arrested, Willey continued with his drug trafficking business.
Willey pleaded guilty to trafficking methylamphetamine and cannabis, and refusing to hand over the pin code to his mobile phone.
Willey received a head sentence of seven years, with a parole eligibility date of December 20, 2022.
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