Ingham court: Alleged drug dealer Justin Russo pleads guilty to evasion

An alleged Hinchinbrook drug dealer has been jailed after pleading guilty to an unrelated charge of attempting to evade police by driving through a cane field.

A Queensland Police Service Toyota Paddy Wagon on patrol outside the Ingham Court House and Ingham Police Station on Thursday. Picture: Cameron Bates

An alleged Hinchinbrook drug dealer remanded in custody due to the seriousness of the charges he is facing has pleaded guilty to an unrelated charge of attempting to evade police by driving through a cane field.

Father of two young children, Justin Lee Russo, 30, faced a total of 24 charges when he appeared in the Ingham Magistrates Court via video-link from the Capricornia Correctional Centre north of Rockhampton on Thursday.

The charges listed in court included 18 alleged counts of supplying dangerous drugs, two counts of possessing drugs and single counts each of trafficking drugs, receiving tainted property (firearm or ammunition) and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Russo, from Halifax in Lower Herbert, pleaded guilty to the sole count of evasion in Bambaroo south of Ingham on December 6, 2023.

A photograph taken outside the Ingham Court House on Thursday. Picture: Cameron Bates

Senior Constable Michael Wilkie said a police patrol attempted to intercept a Toyota HiLux driven by the defendant by “activating lights and sirens”.

“The vehicle initially slowed before indicating it was pulling off the road before it turned sharply and accelerated away through cane paddocks.”

He said the vehicle was registered to Russo who was later “identified through CCTV being with the same vehicle about an hour prior”.

The police prosecutor tendered the court Russo’s traffic history that included speeding, drink driving and multiple drug-driving convictions.

Defence lawyer Nick Crawford of Brisbane-based Phillips Crawford Lawyers said his client, formerly employed in the commercial fishing and mining industries, had been in custody since February 23 this year.

Magistrate Cathy McLennan noted that Russo was on parole at the time of the evasion charge after an earlier custodial sentence for an unrelated crime, “which aggravates this offence”.

Russo was convicted and sentenced to 50 days imprisonment, time deemed already served in full, and disqualified from driving for two years beginning November 28.

Contacted after the hearing, Mr Crawford confirmed that no pleas had been entered in relation to Russo’s outstanding charges.

The matters were adjourned for mention on January 23, 2025.

Russo remains in custody.

Originally published as Ingham court: Alleged drug dealer Justin Russo pleads guilty to evasion