Jay Owen Moroney: Brisbane man sentenced for pill trafficking
A young Brisbane plumbing apprentice sourced 45,000 prescription pills from an alleged drug-trafficking doctor, a court has heard.
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A young Brisbane plumbing apprentice sourced up to 45,000 prescription pills from an alleged drug-trafficking doctor, selling them off or gobbling them up himself, at one point overdosing on 100 diazepam and tramadol pills.
Wynnum man Jay Owen Moroney, 21, pleaded guilty in Brisbane District Court on Tuesday to six offences relating to his diazepam and clonazepam empire.
They included trafficking in Schedule 2 dangerous drugs, two counts of possessing dangerous drugs, and one charge each of possessing a mobile phone used in connection with a drug offence, cash suspected of being the proceeds of a drug offences, and possessing a restricted drug, codeine.
All offences were detected following a police search warrant on Moroney’s former Brisbane City residence.
Moroney came to police attention due to surveillance on his alleged supplier, a Chelmer doctor who operated clinics at Fortitude Valley and Chermside.
Moroney made multiple purchases from the doctor, captured under the surveillance operation and, combined with video evidence on Moroney’s mobile phone, allowed the Crown to deduce he had purchased 41,500 diazepam and 3000 clonazepam tablets from the doctor over a period between March 22 and September 11 last year.
The court heard Moroney sold the pills at street-level, such as when he sold one pill for $15; wholesale, such as when he made an offer to supply 5000 tablets for $5630; and also consumed them as a “raging” addict.
On April 19, about a month after he commenced his trafficking operation, Moroney overdosed on 97 diazepam and nine tramadol tablets, requiring hospitalisation, the court heard.
Meanwhile, in July, he spent about six weeks as an inpatient at a rehabilitation centre, but relapsed and continued his business upon his release.
The court heard Moroney had been “dependent” for months on the prescription medication, which he said aided his sleep and “made him feel happy”.
The search on his Brisbane City residence on September 10 last year uncovered about $8000 cash, 14g cannabis, four bottles of liquid codeine, two boxes of tramadol tablets, 22,500 diazepam tablets, a mobile phone used to sell drugs, and a vial of methoxyflurane, colloquially known as the ‘green whistle’.
Ultimately, $13,600 was seized as being proceeds of Moroney’s trafficking business.
It was submitted on Moroney’s behalf he had since kicked his habit, resumed his plumbing apprenticeship, had a stable relationship.and lived with his mother.
Judge John Allen QC sentenced Moroney to three years’ imprisonment with immediate parole.
The doctor’s charges of trafficking in Schedule 2 dangerous drugs and associated offences are still before the courts.
Another alleged customer of the doctor’s, Hamilton man Mitchel Blake Scruton, 21, was sentenced in Brisbane Supreme Court last week.
He was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment with immediate parole for offences including 11 counts of possessing commercial quantities of a dangerous drug.
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