Lachlan John Baxter guilty of trafficking cocaine, MDMA

A Brisbane youth fell into the dark grip of addiction following the breakdown of a relationship, a court has heard.

A Brisbane ex-private schoolboy fell into the grip of addiction following the breakdown of a relationship, leading him to set up an MDMA and cocaine trafficking operation, a court has heard.

However, what Coorparoo man Lachlan John Baxter, 21, didn’t know, was that some of his customers were undercover police officers waiting for the right moment to strike.

Baxter, a 2016 alumnus of prestigious Anglican Church Grammar School, pleaded guilty in Brisbane Supreme Court one Wednesday to one count of trafficking in dangerous drugs.

The court heard his MDMA and cocaine trafficking operation occurred over a seven-week period between October 26 and December 13 last year.

Baxter used the encrypted messaging application Wickr to conduct his business and so its true scale was not able to be ascertained.

However, during the period, he supplied cocaine totalling 8.75g on three occasions to police informants.

Arrests

On the fourth occasion, he was to sell one-and-a-half ounces of MDMA to the informant, but was arrested before the supply could take place.

At his residence, he was discovered in possession of a further 4.5g of MDMA, a clipseal bag containing cocaine residue, $6350 cash and a variety of drug paraphernalia.

The court heard Baxter held himself out to the informants to be a “bigger player than he was”, bragging about purity levels many magnitudes greater than what he was actually supplying.

Baxter had two previous entries on his criminal history for minor drug possessions, the court heard.

It was submitted on Baxter’s behalf that he began abusing dangerous drugs following the breakdown of a relationship and his parents’ marriage.

He had submitted 10 months of clean drug tests and attended 23 psychology sessions, the court was told.

Furthermore, he was excelling in his engineering studies at the University of Queensland and had secured a coveted mechanical engineering internship at a Crestmead-based commercial door manufacturer, the court was told.

Justice Susan Brown sentenced Baxter to four years’ imprisonment, wholly suspended for an operational period of four years, acknowledging he was on the right path with his rehabilitation.