Teen dug up suitcase of cannabis for dad

AN IPSWICH teen became caught up in his father’s drug trafficking enterprise after his dad told him to dig up a suitcase of cannabis in their backyard.

AN IPSWICH teen became caught up in his father's drug trafficking enterprise after his dad told him to dig up a suitcase of cannabis in their backyard.

But 19-year-old Kane Peter Anthony O'Keefe managed to walk away from Brisbane Supreme Court yesterday with a 12-month good behaviour bond for his minor involvement while his dad was not so lucky.

Bernard James O'Keefe, 43, was sentenced to eight years jail after he pleaded guilty to a string of offences, including trafficking MDMA, methamphetamine and cannabis over six months in 2011.

He will be eligible for parole in April 2016.

Beside O'Keefe in the dock was son, Kane, who pleaded guilty to supplying cannabis in 2011.

The court heard O'Keefe asked his son to "shoot out" to the back paddock at his Chuwar property and retrieve cannabis from a buried suitcase.

Crown Prosecutor David Finch said O'Keefe asked his son to leave it behind the seat of a ute where a man would retrieve it and Kane would collect some money.

Justice Roslyn Atkinson said there was no suggestion O'Keefe "bullied or intimidated" his son but acknowledged Kane was only a young man at the time.

She said police carried out surveillance on O'Keefe's home in 2011 and intercepted his telephone calls.

O'Keefe supplied 4.67kg of cannabis to a man in November, 2011 and methamphetamine with a purity of 64.4 grams in December, 2011.

Mr Finch said O'Keefe earned $95,000 throughout the trafficking - including $31,000 in cash that police discovered.

O'Keefe's defence barrister said his client had been injured and subsequently lost his job when he turned to drug trafficking.

"Leading up to this period of offending he was suffering from a significant depressive order, he was in significant pain, lost his capacity to earn an income so he was in a state where people make poor decisions," he told the court.