Amanda Crystal Baldrey sentenced in court for supplying dangerous drugs

A mother of three attempted to smuggle drugs into a Central Queensland prison for a friend, but she was caught. Here’s what happened to her.

A mother of three attempted to smuggle dangerous drugs into Capricornia Correctional Centre for a friend, hiding the drugs in her bra in a rubber glove to make the handover easier, a court has heard.

Amanda Crystal Baldrey, 33, pleaded guilty in Rockhampton District Court on August 22 to one count of supplying dangerous drugs to a person in a correctional facility.

Crown prosecutor Maryam Yousufzai said Baldrey was friends with a prisoner at Capricornia Correctional Centre.

Ms Yousufzai said in phone calls made between July 15 and July 23, 2021, the prisoner made arrangements for Baldrey to receive packages, which were to be Suboxone strips, and that she would bring them into the prison with her.

The phone calls were recorded.

Amanda Crystal Baldrey, 33, appeared in Rockhampton District Court on August 22, 2022.

Baldrey arrived at the prison on July 23 and was pulled aside and detained.

Baldrey handed prison staff a small blue package that she had hidden inside her bra, which contained 50 Suboxone films and 22.798g of Buprenorphine.

Ms Yousufzai said Baldrey told police she intended on supplying the drugs to the prisoner.

Baldrey told police she had received three separate packages and that she had combined them into a rubber glove to make the handover easier.

Baldrey further told police all the packages were addressed to her residence but came from different places and that she didn’t know who the sender of the packages was but was told of the packages and that the prisoner had sent her some money.

The court heard Baldrey was struggling financially.

“She did this to support her children because she was unemployed,” Ms Yousufzai said.

Ms Yousufzai said Baldrey committed the offence for a commercial purpose.

Capricornia Correctional Centre.

“It’s a fairly large quantity being smuggled into the prison system,” she said.

“There was some level of planning involved on Baldrey’s behalf in terms of collating all the packages into one rubber glove and hiding it in her bra and that was done to avoid detection.”

Defence barrister Maree Willey said her client was the mother of three children and worked as a cleaner until the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

“My client was staying home with the children because they weren’t going to school and she lost her employment as a result,” Ms Willey said.

Ms Willey said her client went on to make “stupid choices”, which included meeting the prisoner and his associates who were users of dangerous drugs but that she was not.

“She had known him for about two years prior to the offending and it was in May 2021 that she started visiting him in prison,” she said.

She said her client immediately co-operated when she was approached by the prison guards.

Judge Katherine McGinness sentenced Baldrey to 12 months’ prison, suspended forthwith for an operational period of 12 months.