Zina Louise Knox sentenced in Rockhampton Court for meth found in mail

When savvy post office workers intercepted her packaged meth, a woman quickly confessed to police she had more of the dangerous drug hidden in her home.

Zina Louise Knox pleaded guilty in Rockhampton District Court to possessing and supplying meth.

A Barcaldine woman whose incoming packages were intercepted by post office staff and found to contain meth quickly confessed to police and led them to more of the drug stashed in her freezer.

Zina Louise Knox, 47, pleaded guilty in Rockhampton District Court to one count of supplying dangerous drugs and four counts of possessing dangerous drugs.

The court heard Knox’s offending was discovered during police operation Tango Denim, which targeted meth supplying in the Barcaldine area.

Knox’s mail was intercepted by officers on four occasions and her phone was later seized, with the first package found in January 2021.

Staff at the Barcaldine post office reported the suspicious package to police before it was seized and analysed.

Inside the package was 0.995g of crystal substance, which contained 0.757g of pure meth.

The court heard Knox’s name and address were “clearly stated” on the package as the recipient.

Police intercepted Knox’s mail on another three occasions in February 2021 and each time they contained meth.

During a search of Knox’s home that same month, message between her and her partner were uncovered, including one where she offered to supply her partner with 0.4g of the drug for $380.

The phone also contained an image Knox had taken of an article titled “how to buy illegal drugs on the internet”.

The prosecution was unable to prove the supply ever eventuated and Knox was sentenced on the basis she arranged to supply the drug.

After the search of Knox’s home, she was interviewed by police and denied knowledge of the packages.

She told police at one time she had allowed her partner to send packages to her address but didn’t know what was in them.

Knox also said she had accessed the dark web to get access to marijuana for her daughter, but was unsuccessful.

Just the next day she contacted police and told them she was not truthful in the interview, saying she was a meth user and wanted to get away from the drug.

Police returned to her home and seized the meth she had hidden in ice cubes in her freezer.

Knox was not charged and the ice cubes were not analysed.

The court heard Knox had not committed an offence since the events took place.

It was said in court Knox had a “prejudicial” upbringing and suffered “terrible” health ailments.

The court heard Knox was a former business owners and had suffered a prejudicial upbringing and “terrible” ongoing health issues.

Judge Jeff Clarke noted she was an otherwise “productive and responsible” member of the community,

He said it was unfortunate her health issues and the collapse of her business led her to create some “poor associations” leading to her offending.

Knox was placed on 18 months’ probation.