The Queensland social media influencers who have been convicted of drug related offences
Glamorous social media influencers have thousands of people following their every photo and video. But some of Queensland’s most insta-famous have been caught possessing and even trafficking in dangerous drugs.
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Social media influencers appear to live the high life.
Their Instagram feeds are full of exotic places, expensive products and hotels.
But for some influencers, behind the facade lays a life of drug abuse.
These are some of the Queensland-based Insta-famous influencers who have been convicted on drug related offences.
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MARY MOLLOY
At the peak of her social media powers, Mary Molloy had 70,000 Instagram followers.
In April 2018, police launched a dramatic raid on her properties in Teneriffe and Newstead.
This year, Molloy pleaded guilty at Brisbane Supreme Court to 18 drug charges including being a party to a drug trafficking operation and 12 charges of supplying cocaine.
The court heard Mollow began selling cocaine in 2015 and collecting drug debts for a drug kingpin.
The court heard the drug money paid the rent on her luxury inner-city home.
Molloy was given a suspended three-year jail sentence.
KARLEE IRONSIDE
Gold Coast influencer Karlee Ironside was high on ice and Xanax when she crashed her car in Surfers Paradise.
She tried to flee the scene but was grabbed stopped by security guards. Ironside was slurring her words when talking to police and unsteady on her feet.
She admitted to them she had taken ice and was found with a flick knife that she carried for “protection” from the 1.5 million people who followed her on social media.
As of 2020 Ironside has 1.2 million followers on Facebook and a further 200,000 on Instagram.
Ironside had modelled for Zoo and Playboy and was planning on travelling to the USA to be a Playboy Bunny.
Ironside was fined $2150, disqualified from driving for 13 months, ordered to pay $1624 to repair damages to tram tracks from the crash. A conviction was not recorded.
JAXON KADE TIPPET
Jaxon Tippet spruiks his own legal body building supplements to help people bulk up, but he has been before the court for possessing steroids on multiple occasions.
In 2017 he was found with 250 steroid tablets and $4000 worth of testosterone. When he faced Southport Magistrates Court in 2018, it was the third time since 2015 he had been to court for possessing steroids.
On November 27, 2017, Sunshine Coast police pulled over Tippet in Tewantin. They noticed he was walking strangely and “favouring his groin area” and found a syringe and needle secreted in his underwear.
Tippet’s lawyer Michael Burrows told the court his client suffered from body dysmorphia and obsessed about his body being underdeveloped, a condition that led to him using steroids.
He pleaded guilty to Southport Magistrates Court to six counts of possessing a dangerous drug, two counts of driving unlicensed and one count of failing to properly dispose of a syringe.
In August 2020, Tippet had about 150,000 Instagram followers.
KATE SZEPANOWSKI
When police pulled over Kate Szepanowzki in Sydney’s eastern suburbs they noticed her anxiously moving things around the centre console.
The police knocked on the car window multiple times before she wound it down.
When they searched the car they found thousands of dollars of cash, Xanax tablets, a plastic bag with what police suspected was traces of cocaine and multiple phones.
Szepanowski, raised in Ipswich, has more than 60,000 followers on Instagram. Her sister Chloe is a YouTube beauty and wellness star and has more than 600,000 followers.
Police pulled her over when they noticed the black Mazda she was driving was travelling very slowly and not staying in its lane.
She told the police the $2500 of cash in her bag came from her “sugar daddy”. She told police she could prove that is where the cash came from with messages on her phone, but she was unable to unlock it.
She was convicted of possessing a prohibited drug and possessing goods suspected of being stolen.
MATT HILTON
Cairns drug dealer Matt Hilton was Instagram famous for his body.
And it was at the gym he met drug dealer Ryan Hill.
Over a two-year period Hilton trafficked hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of cocaine and testosterone around Cairns. He was also using around a gram of cocaine every day.
Hilton had drugs sent to his mother’s hairdressing salon from Sydney, some of them labelled “Fitness Supplements”.
He met customers at restaurants including Nandos and Coffee Club and encouraged them to start dealing drugs.
Hilton became a social media identity was known for his bodybuilding and had more than 13,000 followers on Instagram.
Hilton pleaded guilty at Cairns Supreme Court to drug trafficking was sentenced to 10-years and six months jail. He will be required to serve at least 80 per cent of the sentence.