EXPOSED: Drug dealing parents who have faced Sunshine Coast courts
These are the parents who have found themselves on the wrong side of the law and faced Sunshine Coast courts for supplying drugs.
Police & Courts
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Here are the Coast parents who found themselves on the wrong side of the law, and faced court for supplying drugs.
Meth dealing mum avoids jail time
A Coast drug dealer charged with 16 counts of supplying methamphetamines while on probation avoided jail time after a court heard she had a “traumatic” brain injury which could put her at risk in custody.
Maree Ann Johnson, 39, faced Maroochydore District Court for sentencing in March after pleading guilty to all 16 charges last year.
The mother-of-two was charged with supplying drugs after police searched her house in 2019, finding digital scales and two mobile phones which were analysed, revealing the details of her dealing.
Crown prosecutor William Slack said Johnson had supplied meth to people on 14 occasions and was charged with supplying the drug to herself, with the intent to resell it, on two occasions in July 2019.
He said the quantities ranged between 0.1g and 1.75g, the latter commonly known as a “half ball”.
Judge Richard Jones said Johnson would also be at “serious risk” in the prison system as her impairment would make custody “extraordinarily more difficult.”
Johnson was given head sentence of two-and-a-half years with immediate parole.
Drug dealing dad used codes to sell meth
Police raided Jake James McDonald’s Woombye home at 5am on December 3, 2018, after intercepting a suspicious phone call the then 28-year-old received about a drug deal.
McDonald, his partner and their young daughter were in the main bedroom at the time and the raid uncovered meth, marijuana and cutting agents.
Crown prosecutor Stipe Drinovac said the phone call that led to the raid had been intercepted on August 19 and a person asked if McDonald had a “coffee” ready.
Mr Drinovac said the conversation was a code for a drug deal.
McDonald pleaded guilty in Maroochydore District Court to two counts of unlawfully supplying dangerous drugs and one each of possessing dangerous drugs, possessing a thing used in connection with supplying drugs and possessing things used to produce a dangerous drug.
Defence barrister Nathan Turner said McDonald, now 30, was focused on turning his life around and was “genuinely sorry” for his behaviour.
Judge Deborah Richards sentenced McDonald to one year in jail with immediate release on parole.
Convicted drug trafficker’s ‘life ruined’ by 7 year plight
A convicted Sunshine Coast mum and synthetic cannabis trafficker had her life “ruined” due to seven year delay in the court proceedings.
Phaedra Joy Barrett, 49, pleaded guilty this year to trafficking and producing dangerous drugs from April 2013 to August 2014, and possessing cash and other items used to run her synthetic cannabis business on the Sunshine Coast.
Police had raided Barrett’s Doonan property after intercepting two packages of a chemical used to treat dried vegetable material, commonly known as synthetic cannabinoids, after Barrett had collected them from the Caloundra Post Office on August 25 and 29 in 2014.
Officers found Barrett with $77,350 cash; mobile phone messages and emails regarding orders and vegetable material treated with synthetic cannabinoids in clip-seal bags.
However, it was determined only $2500 of the cash was related to the trafficking business, the rest was connected to Barrett’s other business dealings, the court heard.
She was given an 18-month suspended sentence.
Dad cries as judge reveals fate after Coast raid
A father found growing more than 100 marijuana plants fidgeted and cried in a Coast court while being sentenced for a string of drug offences.
Trent Anthony Malcolm was growing 111 marijuana plants and possessed a further 17.8kg of the drug when police raided a Cootharaba property on June 10, last year.
Messages found on Malcolm’s phone and iPad showed he had supplied or offered to supply methylamphetamine, marijuana and GBH on several occasions between January 2018 and October 2019.
On October 4, 2019, he offered to supply 7g of a substance containing methylamphetamine for $1000.
Malcolm pleaded guilty in Maroochydore District Court in May to offences including 10 counts of supplying, producing and possessing dangerous drugs.
Malcolm cried after being sentenced to 18 months in jail to be released on parole on July 30.
Mum deals meth in exchange for bottle of perfume
A mum of young children was sentenced for dealing methamphetamine in exchange for a bottle of perfume.
Police raided Kylie Maree Herberts’s Buderim home and car at 5pm on March 21, 2019, finding just under 1g of marijuana, small amounts of methamphetamine, clip seal bags, $850 in cash and a phone.
“There was a series of text messages which disclosed an arrangement for her to supply a point of methamphetamine to another person in exchange for a bottle of perfume valued at $130,” crown prosecutor Alex Stark told Maroochydore District Court.
Herberts, then-42, pleaded guilty to six charges including supplying a Schedule 1 dangerous drug in August last year.
Judge Glen Cash gave Herberts a 12-month jail sentence with immediate parole.
‘Off the rails’: How police busted meth dealing Coast mum
A Coast mum was busted supplying meth after an operation targeting drug traffickers led police to her, Maroochydore District Court heard.
Emma Lee Crang, 37, was supported by her mother and the father of her youngest child when she pleaded guilty in June to supplying meth.
Crown prosecutor Madalyn Olivero said the mother-of-two had arranged to meet her supplier at a pub along the Nicklin Way and had asked for 1.75g, which she paid $600 for, some of which she used for herself and some she supplied to other people.
She said Crang, who was 35 at the time, received the drug and “supplied it to her associates”.
Defence barrister Nathan Turner said Crang had gone “off the rails” and started using methamphetamines after ending a long-term relationship.
Judge Anthony Rafter said he had taken her early guilty plea and her personal circumstances into account when deciding a sentence and ordered her to 15 months on probation.
Dad-to-be given ‘last chance’ after busted selling acid
A drug dealer who was attempting to sell 50 acid tabs to fuel his own drug habit was given “one last chance” in order to stay out of jail.
Dylan Remmy Brady was asleep on a mattress in the lounge room when police searched his girlfriend’s house and found acid tablets that belonged to him.
Crown prosecutor Alex Stark told Maroochydore District Court police found 45 tablets of lysergide (LSD), Brady’s mobile phone and $775 cash.
Mr Stark told the court an analysis of Brady’s phone revealed he had offered to sell the tablets to people on January 23 and 30, and the court heard Brady had also offered to supply marijuana, Xanax and MDMA.
“This is consistent with his submissions that he had purchased 50 acid tabs on that day and his friend had already taken two of them,” Mr Stark said.
The court heard Brady had not sold the other 45 tablets.
Brady pleaded guilty to 13 charges, including supplying and possessing dangerous drugs.
Defence lawyer Ali Rana told the court the 24-year-old was working as a labourer where he had regular drug tests.
Judge Anthony Rafter sentenced Brady to one year jail, with an immediate parole release date.
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