Parents running $100,000 drug ring plead guilty to 40+ charges

A judge has lashed a drug addict couple who ran a meth and cannabis trafficking operation in the state’s southeast and saw the woman spend almost her entire pregnancy in custody.

Chloe Weir and Kurt Hart.

Two drug-dealing Queensland parents could be free and reunited in as little as three months, despite being arrested in a major police sting and pleading guilty to dozens of serious charges.

The judge lashed the drug addict couple for their previous run-ins with the law and bluntly told them to get their acts together for the sake of their young daughter.

Kurt Patrick Hart, 37, pleaded guilty to 23 charges, while his 25-year-old partner Chloe Anne Weier admitted to 18 charges. Both included multiple counts of possessing dangerous drugs, as well as three counts of weapons possession, and one count of drug trafficking.

Crown prosecutor Caitlin Penfold told Brisbane Supreme Court they ran a methamphetamine and cannabis trafficking operation between February and October in 2021.

Ms Penfold said the pair had 70 customers and conducted at least 480 drug deals. The total profit remains unknown, but Hart received at least $100,000.

The two pleaded guilty.

“Hart primarily carried on the business – he set the prices, handled debt collection and advertising, and negotiated with customers,” Ms Penfold said.

“Weier was a lesser-involved partner … she communicated with customers and supplied drugs when Hart was not available.”

On October 25, 2021 police raided the couple’s Beaudesert property and found drugs, paraphernalia, Tasers, and more than $5000 in cash. Later that day, police raided a Surfers Paradise apartment where they arrested the pair and found more drugs and paraphernalia.

“This is obviously a very serious example of trafficking,” Ms Penfold said.

Defence barrister Matthew Hynes, acting for Hart, tendered a letter in which his client expressed his “remorse” and “shame”.

Hart has a job offer available upon release, has been clean for the past 21 months spent in pre-sentence custody, and has a place at a residential rehabilitation clinic upon release.

“At 37, he’s a man who is sick of spending lots of time in jail because of this addiction he has not been able to break,” Mr Hynes said.

“The rehabilitation prospects are better now than they have been in the past 12 years.”

Hart frequently wiped away tears throughout Friday’s sentencing hearing.

Defence barrister Amelia Loode, representing Weier, said her client discovered she was pregnant when they were arrested, and spent almost her entire pregnancy in custody before giving birth to their daughter while on bail.

Ms Loode submitted multiple negative drug tests Weier had done while on bail.

In sentencing, Judge Lincoln Crowley issued a stern warning to the pair.

“It is the case Ms Weier and Mr Hart that frequently before this court (we) deal with people who become involved in drugs at a young age and become addicts, and part of that traces back to a childhood which has been dysfunctional,” he said.

“One of the things which is an almost guarantee to send someone on that trajectory from a young age is when their parents were drug users and addicts. So if you want to avoid that for your own child, you need to continue doing something about your own rehabilitation.”

Judge Crowley handed Hart a five-year jail term, but ordered it be suspended for a five-year period once he has served three more months. He will be eligible for parole on October 28.

Weier received a four-year prison sentence, but it was immediately suspended for a four-year period, so she walked free on Friday. She had done eight months in pre-sentence custody.