Noodle delivery driver’s secret life as ice kingpin: You were top of the tree
A noodle delivery driver and new dad lived a secret life as an ice kingpin, a court has heard.
Police & Courts
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A noodle delivery driver lived a secret life as an ice kingpin, arranging importation of the drug from overseas by ship or plane, then pushing it through his network of Queensland dealers who were incentivised with bonuses, a court has heard.
Thanh Lan Luong, 32, was in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Thursday where the court heard that he trafficked in wholesale quantities of ice in Ipswich and Brisbane over two months and 25 days between February and April 2020.
He supplied ice to his lieutenants in charge of distribution Jason Scott Stallan, 51, and another drug dealer on 59 occasions, sometimes more than once each day.
At his Supreme Court sentencing last year, Stallan admitted selling ice on 250 occasions netting about $150,000, and he was jailed for three years and eight months for trafficking in a sentence set on appeal.
In summarising the case Justice Elizabeth Wilson said that police estimated that between February and April 2020 Luong supplied Stallan with about 1.6kg of ice for about $300,000.
Saigon-born Australian citizen Luong pleaded guilty to four charges including one count of trafficking and two counts of ice possession.
“Such was your business approach to this operation, that in an effort to encourage Mr Stallan to reach sales targets you provided him a commission, which was an additional quantity of methylamphetamine for free every six weeks.
“This arrangement was detailed in a hand written contract between you and Stallan,” Justice Wilson said.
The contract was found by police in a safe found in Luong’s home during a search.
Crown Prosecutor Zachary Kaplan told the court that Luong was at the very top of the heirachy, setting the prices for his “highly sophisticated and very successful commercial trafficking” ring.
Justice Wilson noted that Luong would slash or raise prices depending on supply and demand to maximise profits, and encouraged his dealers to do the same.
“You were the top of the tree, without you the others would not have trafficked drugs,” Justice Wilson said.
“You purchased wholesale quantities of dangerous drugs from an unidentified overseas supplier, then arranged the delivery of drugs by air or sea,” she said in sentencing him.
It was only when international borders closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020 that his importations hit a snag, the court heard.
When police raided his home and arrested him in April 2020 they found items worth $100,000 including a Rolex watch and jewellery in his safe in his lounge room, as well as $52,850 in cash, and 627g of ice, containing 448g of pure ice.
Earlier that day they had found 40g of ice in his car, the court heard.
It was only by bad luck that Luong was caught, as he wasn’t the target of the police drug sting and they discovered his identity by accident while tapping lower-ranked lieutenant Stallan’s phone in March 2020.
Luong and Stallan used the number eight, a lucky number in Chinese tradition, as a code in mobile phone text messages to advise each other that they made it home safe after buying drugs without being searched by police, the court heard.
Luong’s barrister told the court that he came to Australia on a student visa from Vietnam in 2006, and left school in year 10, since he was charged he has been running a car detailing business.
“He did this for financial security, and he said that he knew that if he got caught he was going to be going to jail for a long time,” Luong’s barrister told the court.
Luong did not resort to violence or threaten people as part of his syndicate, he said.
Justice Wilson sentenced Luong to nine years jail for ice trafficking.
“I accept the prosecution submission that you’re offending cannot be just a one-off slip-up,” Justice Wilson told him.
“You were driven by cynical financial gain,” she said.
As he was led away to the cells Luong wiped tears from his eyes as he farewelled his wife, who gave birth to her first baby two weeks ago.
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