Chloe Victoria Smith pleads guilty to drug, weapons charges
A Mackay beauty worker and mum accused of trafficking meth with her former partner may challenge the depth of her involvement.
Police & Courts
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A Mackay beauty worker and mum accused of trafficking meth with her former partner may challenge the depth of her involvement in the enterprise.
Chloe Victoria Smith, 30, has pleaded guilty to a raft of drug charges more than two years after she was first arrested in 2020 as part of Operation Romeo Suitcase.
Crown prosecutor Tiffany Lawrence initially raised concerns as Smith was set to be arraigned in Mackay Supreme Court over indications the eyelash technician may contest the trafficking charge.
“It isn’t clear to me whether or not … the contest is whether she was a party at all to her then partner’s trafficking, or if it is just to the extent to which she assisted in that endeavour,” Ms Lawrence said.
“In other words, the criminality of her acts and participation,” Justice David North said, to which Ms Lawrence confirmed.
Smith’s former partner Reece William Luscombe pleaded guilty in March 2022 to trafficking meth for six months between 2019 and 2020 and was jailed for nine years with parole eligibility on August 15, 2023.
He and Smith were arrested in March 2020 with items including a Maserati, $100,000 in cash and 185.932g of pure meth with a street value of up to $44,000 seized from their Rural View home in a police operation targeting an alleged drug network spanning from the Gold Coast to Cairns.
The matter was stood down so Ms Lawrence could confer with Smith’s counsel.
When the matter was resumed Ms Lawrence said her concern had been resolved and if there was “any contest at all it will just be into the facts of the matter”.
“Rather than whether or not (Smith) was party to the charge,” Ms Lawrence said.
Smith was bulk arraigned on 12 offences including trafficking, aggravated meth possession, possessing property from trafficking dangerous drugs and supplying dangerous drugs.
She sat in the dock as the charges were read while her solicitor, Katie Wolff of Rowland McGrath Criminal Law, dialled in via telephone.
Ms Lawrence said both parties agreed the matter “ought to be adjourned” to the next supreme court sittings and that Smith’s bail be enlarged.
Ms Lawrence said while it was “rather unusual” for the prosecution to not oppose bail considering the gravity of the charges, there were two mitigating factors.
The first was that Smith “has already served some time in presentence custody” although Ms Lawrence added this was not an indication the crown would not be seeking further custody at her sentence.
The second was the facts of the case were not yet settled between the prosecution and the defence.
Justice North agreed to enlarge Smith’s bail and set the matter down for June 5.
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