‘Ice queen’ in highly corporatised drug trafficking ring, police claim

BONUSES for meeting sales targets, profit-loss ledgers and “more money than we can spend” — this woman was allegedly a major player in a corporatised ice trafficking ring.

BONUSES for meeting sales targets, a corporate HQ and profit and loss ledgers – welcome to Ice Inc.

Police say the increased corporatisation of the ice scourge represents a worrying trend in drug dealing.

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Details of the operations of a southeast Queensland gang estimated to have supplied more than 11kg of ice worth more than $2 million in the past year were revealed in the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Rebecca Castner, 51, an alleged “high-level” player under an even higher layer of drug traffickers, was released on bail on 10 drugs charges.

Castner, who allegedly ran the Sunshine Coast franchise of the ring, must live with her ex-husband Shane at Wynnum until she is due in court on January 28.

Ice and cash was stored in a new luxury high rise apartment in Upper Mount Gravatt, referred to as “The Office” in tapped phone calls, according to a police fact sheet tendered in court.

Every Monday the ring would meet, “count the money” and bag up over 1kg into 1oz bags, police allege.

Facebook image of Buderim ice accused Rebecca Castner.

On other occasions Castner would meet with one of her alleged bosses, Adam Charles Johns, 34, of Redbank Creek near Esk, to pick up drugs at the Ettamogah Pub in Palmview, the Big Kart Track in Landsborough, a cemetery down the road or at the BP service stations on the Bruce Highway in Caboolture.

The other top members of the ring allegedly included Bradley Matthew Watt, 50, from Brisbane and Luke Perrett, 37, from Gatton who were released on bail in July.

Castner, who police gave the codename “kapow”, is alleged to have sold $1 million of ice in six months out of her rented tropical hideaway in Buderim.

She staffed her house with drivers, security guards, debt collectors and a personal assistant, police allege.

She is accused of sending ice addicts to Sunshine Coast retailers on “steal-to-order sprees” to fund their addiction. Sometimes Castner allowed addicts to hand over their cars in lieu of payment.

She is also accused of supplying ice to her children Maddison, 20, Jessica, 28 and Ben, 30.

The iconic Ettamogah Pub was one of the venues allegedly used for drug drops.

She was busted on phone taps saying “we were making so much money we couldn’t spend it” and that she had “wads of cash” which she hid in cushions, a plastic tube and in a book, police documents allege.

Police claim Castner would supply drugs on credit and then “use threats of violence” to get repaid. When Castner heard police may raid her Buderim home in June, she allegedly checked into a Mooloolaba resort and ran her empire from there.

Police also allege Castner was recorded saying she kept a ledger of drug debts hidden in her ceiling, and she asked to have a secret compartment fitted to her Jeep Cherokee “to store large quantities” of ice to avoid detection.

The police facts allege she is recorded on phone taps boasting that “being a crack lord is an easy life ... they’ll never catch me”.