Jhye Powhiri Tanerau-Love attempts to flush mobile phone down toilet during police raid

A drug dealer who lost his Townsville suppliment business as a result of his criminal ways tried to flush his phone down the toilet when cops raided his home.

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A MAN who lost his Townsville business after being sent to jail, attempted to flush his mobile phone down the toilet after police raided his house.

Drug trafficker Jhye Powhiri Tanerau-Love, 23, supplied cannabis over a seven-month period.

The Townsville District Court heard Tanerau-Love sourced more than 12kg of the drug.

Tanerau-Love was an associate of James Wickham who was recently sentenced in the Townsville District Court to two years’ jail.

Crown prosecutor Molly Mahlouzarides said Tanerau-Love worked closely with Wickham.

“The defendant had three separate shipments of four pounds, that is a total of 12 pounds delivered to Mr Wickham’s address,” she said.

“That was then repackaged and sold onwards to repay the defendant and a fourth delivery was intercepted at Australia Post.”

Ms Mahlouzarides said Tanerau-Love turned over $50,000 in drugs with profit estimated to be $14,000.

Jhye Powhiri Tanerau-Love was sentenced to three years' jail for trafficking in dangerous drugs.

The court heard Tanerau-Love purchased $3000 worth of Bitcoin and deposited $36,000 into the bank accounts of other associates.

A search warrant was executed at Tanerau-Love’s address on August 28, 2018.

Police found 15 pounds of cannabis, a safe, pipe and grinder.

When police arrived at the address Tanerau-Love attempted to flush his mobile phone down the toilet, the court heard.

Tanerau-Love was granted Supreme Court bail on October 4, 2018.

He has spent 38 days in pre-sentence custody.

The court heard Tanerau-Love was on bail for drug offences at the time of the offending.

He pleaded guilty to six charges including trafficking in dangerous drugs.

Defence barrister Kelly Stone said his client opened his own health supplement business in the Townsville CBD in 2016 before he lost everything.

“After receiving bail he found that his business had been let go to a degree by the people who were working for him … he decided it would be best to close that business,” he said.

“Before the offending he was using cannabis every day in large amounts. It was at that point that he decided to start selling the drug to support his own habit.”

Judge John Coker told Tanerau-Love “what you did was just stupid”.

“Trafficking in any illicit substances is a dreadful action. It leads to a life without hope or even it might lead to death,” he said.

“It also has dreadful consequences for the community of Queensland and our society generally, in that there is, as we are all aware, a rash of crimes committed as a result of people looking to feed their habits.”

He sentenced Tanerau-Love to three years’ jail.

A parole release date was set at May 3 next year.

Originally published as Jhye Powhiri Tanerau-Love attempts to flush mobile phone down toilet during police raid