Gold Coast methamphetamine dealers named and shamed for their crimes

Despite millions of dollars of the notorious drug ice hauled off our streets over the past few years, dealers are still finding a way to peddle meth. These are the faces behind our scourge.

Meth – the notorious drug tearing families apart and destroying lives – will be back on the streets “like a tsunami” when international resumes, an anti-drugs campaigner has warned.

Gold Coast-based Anti Ice Campaign director Glenn Ivers said more education, rehabilitation facilities and harsher penalties were needed to quash the drug’s impending resurgence.

Mr Ivers said pandemic lockdowns and travel restrictions were behind a drop in use.

“Within the first month of lockdown, the price of meth on the streets had doubled,” he said.

“The supply, which was never an issue before, became scarce.

“It’s going to come back like a tsunami now that the floodgates are opening again.

“Unfortunately, we’re going to see it trend back upwards again.”

Mr Ivers said while border security had made some “significant busts” in recent months, there was more to be done in tackling the scourge of ice.

“It is effectively like a chemical terrorism attack on our kids so those major dealers, we would support harsher penalties for them,” he said.

His comments come after the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission’s national wastewater drug monitoring program released its new report last month.

It found regional alcohol, nicotine, MDMA, methylamphetamine (ice), oxycodone, fentanyl and cannabis average consumption exceeded capital city consumption during April 2021 to August 2021.

But average methylamphetamine consumption decreased in both capital city and regional sites, according to the program, which monitored the consumption of 12 substances across 58 Australian wastewater treatment plants.

According to Queensland Police data, there were 172 drug supply charges recorded in the Gold Coast police district between March 2021 and February 2022, compared to a staggering 556 the year before.

Here are five convicted Gold Coast meth dealers and the penalties they received:

Allira Jade Campbell

A methamphetamine queenpin dealt up to $57,000 of ice weekly, buried kilos of drugs in her backyard, poured drugs down the sink and tried to stuff $80,000 in her daughter’s bag when arrested, a court has heard.

She also chased drug debts while incarcerated, a court has heard.

Burleigh Heads woman Allira Jade Campbell, 36, was sentenced in Brisbane Supreme Court in May for 13 offences.

They included trafficking in ice, possessing 750g pure of the drug, supplying GHB six times, attempting to pervert the course of justice, destroying evidence, failing to provide passcodes for mobile phones and possessing a used glass pipe, inter alia.

The court heard Campbell’s period of trafficking occurred between June 14 and December 4, 2019, when she was arrested following a search warrant of a Robina residence.

Her current period of trafficking commenced just three months after her release on parole, on March 18, 2019, for a previous offence of trafficking ice. For that she was jailed for five years on July 26, 2017.

On that previous occasion, Campbell was dealing to users – this time, however, she had upgraded to supplying other dealers in ounces at a time.

Crown prosecutor Matt Hynes told the court Campbell had 25 customers that could be proven.

When police executed the search warrant in December 2019, they found – consistent with their intelligence – 1kg of a substance containing 757g pure methamphetamine buried in her backyard, the court heard, worth between $105,000 and $500,000 depending on how it was sold.

Justice Francis Williams sentenced Campbell to 10 years’ imprisonment.

The sentence means she will be forced to serve 80 per cent of the sentence before she is eligible for parole.

Richard Kevin Anderson

Court

An alleged Mongols bikie who spent six months trafficking cocaine and ice to fund his own drug habit was jailed for one year.

Richard Kevin Anderson, 32, pleaded guilty in the Brisbane Supreme Court in February to one charge of trafficking in dangerous drugs.

The court heard Anderson had already been given a suspended sentence in August 2020 for possessing dangerous drugs in late 2019.

Defence barrister Martin Longhurst said despite already being sentenced, Anderson was then hit with a fresh drug trafficking charge months later in October 2020 relating to the same offending.

It’s understood the fresh charge was laid in the wake of the execution of bikie Shane Bowden when police began raiding properties allegedly connected to bikie gangs and drug distribution.

Mr Longhurst said Anderson had experienced an “incredibly bad 2019”, he became a heavy drug user and began selling drugs to support his own habit.

He said Anderson was now drug and alcohol free, had good job prospects and had significant family support.

“…the trafficking is described as low-level wholesaling and street-level dealing,” Justice Glenn Martin said in sentencing Anderson.

Anderson was sentenced to five years imprisonment, to be suspended after he has served 12 months behind bars.

David John Brott

A former salesman in his 60s supplied the drugs ice and cannabis to five teenagers aged between 13 and 15 – and also smoked a bong with the group.

David John Brott supplied drugs to teenagers on 13 occasions between July 26 and November 21, 2020.

He was more than 50 years older than the youngest teen he gave drugs.

The 65-year-old pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court in Southport last year to 13 counts of supplying dangerous drugs to a minor under 16, two counts of possessing dangerous drugs and two counts of possessing pipes and utensils related to drugs.

Judge David Jackson sentenced Brott to two-years-and-three-months’ prison to be suspended after he had served nine months.

“There is no suggestion that the quantities were other than relatively small ones,” he said.

Nine of the drug supply charges related to a teenage girl known to Brott while the others were to her friends.

The court was told most of the drug supply was because the teens asked for the drugs.

On the final occasion on November 21, Brott asked one of the teens “if the girls wanted a session”.

Police found a video of the group smoking cannabis from a plastic bong.

Crown prosecutor Christopher Cook said the main child was consistently referring to her age when talking to Brott.

“There is some persistence and obviously the children are active participants, but he is the adult,” he said.

Defence barrister James McNab, instructed by Hannay Lawyers, said Brott’s wife passed away in 2019 after a battle with lung cancer which is when Brott’s drug use escalated.

He said Brott faced being deported back to New Zealand if he was sentenced to more than 12 months’ prison.

Ivan Tesic

Gold Coast ice kingpin Ivan Tesic.

Gold Coast ice kingpin and nightclub owner Ivan Tesic was jailed for eight years and nine months for possession of $5.25 million worth of ice.

The flashy drug baron and silent ex-nightclub owner Tesic was found guilty of possessing six bottles of pure meth oil, weighing 3.68kg, that was found in a car at his Gold Coast home in 2014.

Defence barrister Saul Holt QC told the court Tesic was a “mere courier” but in sentencing Justice Glenn Martin said the amount of ice suggested he had “greater power than an ordinary courier might be expected to have”.

Last year, Tesic recovered the Holden Commodore seized by police after he made an application to a magistrate to have it returned to him.

Queensland Police did not oppose his application to have the vehicle returned.

Magistrate Suzette Coates ordered it’s return to Tesic noting he’d have to organise a truck to pick it up because it was unregistered.

Corey Christopher Haysom

This convicted ice trafficker who lived off unemployment benefits was sentenced to three years jail in January 2020.

He pleaded guilty to a raft of offences including trafficking ice and cannabis and possession and supply of drugs, over a period of three months in 2018.

Haysom was not shy about his profits, flaunting leather loungers, Gucci watches and designer handbags that filled his Southport apartment.

Crown prosecutor Ryder Reid described the Haysom’s dealing as “fairly prolific”, telling the court the man was at times selling hits to customers up to 20 times per week.

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Originally published as Gold Coast methamphetamine dealers named and shamed for their crimes