Gold Coast ice-smuggling grandfather hid drugs in comics, court hears

A 52-year-old man has wiped away tears after learning his sentence following an elaborate plan to mail ice to Australia in packages disguised as comic books.

The mastermind of a sophisticated plot to smuggle ice to Australia through the mail hidden in hollowed-out comic books has wiped tears from his eyes as he was sentenced to nine years’ jail.

Ross Stuart McCallum, 52, a grandfather from the Gold Coast was in the Supreme Court in Brisbane on Friday where prosecutor Bruce Mumford told Justice David Boddice that McCallum trafficked an unknown quantity of methylamphetamine over 14 months between February 2018 and June 2019.

Mr Mumford said McCallum travelled to the US west coast where he sourced the ice from at least four suppliers, then posted the drugs to the Gold Coast in packages disguised as comic books, legal documents or business documents.

US Customs staff or Australian Border Force seized some packages but others evaded detection, Mr Mumford said.

Some of the packages were addressed to fictitious people at vacant houses and one package contained 647g of pure ice.

McCallum was paid a total of $312,000 into his bank accounts by customers, and was chasing a $16,000 drug debt from a customer, Mr Mumford told the court.

Ross McCallum travelled to the US west coast where he sourced the ice from at least four suppliers. Picture: Adam Armstrong

Phone taps captured McCallum spruiking the quality of his ice and threatening another man named to stay away from his customers.

McCallum, who was an ice addict at the time of his offending, pleaded guilty to nine charges including trafficking wholesale amounts of ice, importing drugs, attempting to import drugs, drug possession and drug supply.

Barrister Joshua Fenton told the court that McCallum was born and raised in Geelong from a good family and did a carpentry apprenticeship before moving to the Gold Coast at 21 to play for an AFL feeder club for the Brisbane Bears.

He worked in the building industry before starting a shop-fitting business aged 25, which he ran until about 2008.

Mr Fenton said his client had recently visited his dying 84-year-old mother in Victoria believing that it would be the last time he would see her, as she was having weekly blood transfusions for leukaemia.

“Given the length of the sentence he is facing, he’s reconciled to never seeing his mother again,” Mr Fenton told the court.

McCallum is also concerned about how his 25-year-old daughter, a single mother of a two-month old baby girl will be able to pay the rent at the home she has been sharing with him, Mr Fenton told the court.

Justice Boddice sentenced McCallum to nine years for trafficking in ice, with parole eligibility after five years.

Ross McCallum, who was an ice addict at the time of his offending, pleaded guilty to nine charges. Picture: Adam Armstrong

He would have been sentenced to more than 10 years but Justice Boddice showed leniency due to McCallum’s “genuine and successful efforts at rehabilitating” himself, and his good prospects for further rehabilitation.

Justice Boddice said McCallum’s ice addiction was not an excuse for his offending.

“Of course not everybody who’s addicted to drugs becomes a sophisticated drug trafficker,” he said.

Urine screens showed he was currently not taking drugs, and friends gave character references that he had turned his life around, Justice Boddice said.