Drug dealer pumped ‘significant amount of meth’ into community after police raided home

A drug dealer who moved his meth business after police raided his Cairns unit had peddled half a million dollars of meth through Far North Queensland before he was busted a second time.

A convicted drug dealer who discovered meth later in life “pumped” more than half a million dollars of the drug into the Cairns community in the months after his Holloways Beach unit was raided by the police. Picture: Brendan Radke

A convicted drug dealer who discovered meth later in life “pumped” more than half a million dollars of the drug into the Cairns community in the months after his Holloways Beach unit was raided by the police.

Paul Christian Keller, 49, pleaded guilty in Cairns Supreme Court to seven charges, including trafficking methylamphetamines and possessing meth, money and a mobile used in the drug business, along with drug utensils such as scales, clip-seal bags and cryovac machines.

Keller was said to use friends and associates as “lackeys” and “decoys”, channelling money and deals through their bank accounts, using their names and, on one occasion, moving in with a friend in Edge Hill after his own Holloways Beach unit and car was raided by police in late 2022.

Judge James Henry described Keller as higher than a street-level dealer, but not at the top of the supply chain, noting he “exploited others to do your dirty work for you”.

He said Keller associated with a fellow dealer known as “Lifeguard Trav” and the extent of Keller’s dealing was found in a running note on the mobile phone of another “higher-up” supplier that detailed Keller’s growing drug debt to him.

The court was told police searching the Holloways Beach unit seized $59,0000 in cash.

“You had a mounting drug debt … (which) also demonstrates the throughput – one can (use it) to understand the sort of volume of drug that was being acquired from him by you,” Justice Henry said.

“This evidence … covers three months and seven days and shows total purchase values of $513,000 – this gives rise to an inferred (amount of drugs) of 67 ounces or 1.8kg, averaging out to four ounces a week.

“What’s remarkable about your activity is that a search was conducted in 2022 and despite what had to be the realisation that police had an interest in your activity and some idea what was going on, you kept going.”

The court was told police searching the Holloways Beach unit had seized $59,0000 in cash and 60.82g of meth in different locations and $32,390 cash in Keller’s car, stored in a black shaving kit.

Justice Henry described Keller’s drug trafficking business as “well-organised” and “industrious”, in which significant volumes of the drug were moved despite the “clear warning signal of knowing your unit had been searched by police”.

“You made the incredibly foolish choice to consume methylamphetamine and a … problem developed from there,” Justice Henry said.

“The drug brings misery to the user, to family and loved ones, because people commit offences against property to raise money to feed their habit,” Justice Henry said.

“Worst of all, this drug can have an effect in some users of causing paranoia, aggression and violence, sometimes causing them to commit appallingly senseless crimes of violence against entirely innocent members of the public.”

Justice Henry said Keller, formerly a blocklayer, had led a law-abiding life before lapsing into drug offending and ultimately developing a sizeable habit.

“You made the incredibly foolish choice to consume methylamphetamine and a … problem developed from there,” he said.

When police executed a search warrant at the Edge Hill address where Keller was staying in February 2023, they found knives, scales, clipseal bags, a handgun, 42 rounds of the same calibre ammunition as the handgun, $5000 in $100 bills and 25.987g of meth.

Justice Henry sentenced Keller to 7.5 years’ jail and gave him a parole eligibility date of May 15, 2027, which took into account the time he had already served on remand.

Originally published as Drug dealer pumped ‘significant amount of meth’ into community after police raided home