Jordan Dean King, 28, who had a fight at Yeppoon Bowls Club, trafficked drugs for five months in 2021, purchasing MDMA by Bitcoin

A man who punched a patron of the Yeppoon Bowls Club and chased him around the venue has now been convicted of trafficking drugs including cocaine and MDMA. Now, his 29-customer business has been exposed.

A man who punched a patron of the Yeppoon Bowls Club and chased him around the venue has now been convicted of trafficking drugs.

Jordan Dean King, 28, pleaded guilty on March 30 in the Supreme Court in Rockhampton to one count of trafficking drugs, one possess drug utensils, possess a restricted drug, possess anything used in a crime and possess item suspected used in a drug crime.

Crown prosecutor Maryam Yousufzai said King trafficked drugs for financial gain and had plans to expand the business.

The court heard King trafficked drugs for five months between August 19, 2020 and January 19, 2021, making 92 supplies of marijuana, 15 of MDMA and eight of cocaine – all street level quantities to 29 customers in Yeppoon and Rockhampton.

Ten days earlier, King was in an altercation at the Yeppoon Bowls Club where both men involved kicked, punched and grabbed each other and King threw the man to the ground then kicked him in the head.

Justice Graeme Crow described King’s trafficking offending as “serious” and “evil”, stating he was troubled King’s wife had referred to it in her letter to the court as “a silly mistake”.

“Trafficking in dangerous drugs is a very serious offence,” he said.

“It destroys lives.”

Police searched King’s Bondoola residence on January 28, 2021, where he told police before they entered the property of the grow tent set up inside, what was in his safe and provided the code to safe.

The restricted drug he had in his possession was 20 post cycle treatment tablets for steroid use.

King also possessed a steroid kit and an unused cocaine kit.

Along with the grow tent, police located chemicals, fertilisers and a heat lamp, along with a homemade bong and tick sheet.

Justice Crow said the evidence before the court showed King preferred to purchase and sell hydroponic grown marijuana but would settle for “bush” marijuana if no hydroponic was available from any of his sources.

He said King purchased testosterone online and had it sent in the mail while he used Bitcoin to purchase MDMA with the price fluctuating over the trafficking period, resulting in him sometimes paying $45 per capsule.

“You offered customers to test your product and supplied one customer extra because you had kept them waiting,” Justice Crow said.

He said King once told his wife, after a big sale, that he then had the money to pay the rent.

The court heard King completed a butcher’s apprenticeship after finishing school, and worked in scaffolding to supplement his apprentice income.

He then went on to do three years of an electrical apprenticeship before returning full-time to scaffolding but now works in the mining industry.

Defence barrister Jordan Ahlstrand said King had been injured in a workplace accident while working in scaffolding in 2018 where he fell 4.5 metres and injured his knee and shoulder, along with nerve damage.

King has had two knee and two shoulder surgeries since the accident.

He said King had used marijuana before the accident, but when his painkiller prescriptions ran out, he turned to using more marijuana to help deal with the pain.

Mr Ahlstrand said his client started using marijuana recreationally when he was 20.

He said King had not used drugs since being charged, evident by drug test results provided to the court.

Mr Ahlstrand said his client’s wife, who he had been in a relationship with for 12 years and married four, had given birth to their first child the week before sentencing.

Justice Crow said King’s high level of co-operation with police at the scene, that they were street level supplies, his lack of relevant history, lack of weapons and violence in the trafficking business, was what saved him from serving actual time in prison.

He sentenced King to 3.5 years prison, wholly suspended and operational for 3.5 years.