Jury has retired to decide fate of alleged drug kingpin Ivan Tesic

Jurors in the ice traficking trial of alleged kingpin Ivan Tesic will resume deliberations on Thursday morning, after asking for advice over being unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

JURORS in the ice traficking trial of alleged kingpin Ivan Tesic have been sent home after asking for advice over being unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

They will return tomorrow.

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The jury of nine men and three women provided a note to Supreme Court Justice Glenn Martin at 5pm today seeking direction of what to do next after deliberating for four-and-a-half hours.

The note read: “The jury is not unanimous on its decisions on both counts, what is the process?”

Justice Martin told the jurors they were entitled to take as long as they wished to reach a verdict, and he would only discharge them if there was no likelihood of a genuine agreement being reached after further deliberation.

“Judges are usually reluctant to discharge a jury because experience has shown that juries can often agree if given enough time to consider and discuss the issues,” Justice Martin said.

“But if, after calmly considering the evidence and listening to the opinions of other jurors you cannot honestly agree with the conclusions of other jurors, you must give affect to your own view of the evidence,” he said.

Accused drug kingpin arrives at Brisbane Supreme Court today. Picture: Darren England/AAP

“Each of you has sworn and affirmed that you will consciously try the charges... you must fulfil it to the best of your ability,” he said.

“The process of considering a verdict should involve weighing-up one anothers opinions about the evidence and testing them by discussion, this often leads to a better understanding of the differences of opinion which you may have and may convince you that your original opinion might have been wrong,” he said.

“Experience has shown that often juries are able to agree in the end, and for that reason judges... usually request juries to re-examine the matters on which they are in disagreement and to make further attempt to reach a verdict before they are to be discharged,” he said.

“I ask you to retire again and see whether you can reach a verdict,” he said.

He reminded them not to reveal their voting figures in favour or against.

The jury -- who have been deliberating since 11.05am today -- were sent home overnight to resume tomorrow morning.

Tesic is standing trial on charges of trafficking in ice at some point between August 2013 and March 2014, and of possession of ice on March 20, 2014 when police found six soft drink bottles filled with meth-oil in a car at his Isle of Capri home on the Gold Coast.

In summing up the case this morning, Justice Martin told the jury that the prosecution were “almost entirely” relying on the evidence of the mule to convict Tesic because police bugging devices and phone taps had failed to catch evidence of Tesic talking about drugs at his palatial waterfront home in the Isle of Capri.

Justice Martin told the jury Crown prosecutor Mark Whitbread had also asked them to take a close look at a “red and black book” found by police in Tesic’s home in the Sydney suburb of Hoxton Park.

Tesic did not take the witness stand and did not call a single witness in his defence.

However in their submissions to the jury the defence team attacked the mule’s credibility, arguing he lied repeatedly to police and implicated Tesic to save his own skin and get an “amazing discount” on his jail term — a wholly suspended five years’ jail.

The defence argued that the mule, who had served 16 months’ jail previously for drug crimes and admitted he had been involved in the drug trade for up to seven years until 2014, told so many lies that the jury could not believe a single word he said.

Tesic is alleged to have asked the mule to make a delivery of meth oil to alleged Gold Coast drug dealer Shane Ross at either Harbourtown or Helensvale, then to pick up ice from Ross and deliver it to other dealers Billy Thomas and Nicky Hatton.

Tesic is alleged to have asked the mule to do these deliveries between five and six times over a period of up to four months., the court heard.

The mule also testified during the trial that a drug dealer Darren Dark delivered ice to Tesic at Tesic’s Isle of Capri home at some point prior to October 11, 2013, and the ice was hidden in the grass catcher of a lawnmower.

Tesic is also alleged to have instructed the mule in February 2014 to drive a silver Holden Commodore ute to Sydney from the Gold Coast, and that there was money hidden in the ute.

On a second occasion the mule testified he picked up a bag of cash in a JB Hifi shopping bag from Novak Tesic at the Isle of Capri house and drove it to Sydney with a plan to give it to Ivan Tesic, but when he arrived Tesic was not at the Hoxton Park home.

Then later Tesic is alleged to have ordered the mule to take six green soft-drink bottles of meth oil to Queensland.

The mule also claimed that Tesic gave many of his orders to him about the ice ring via BlackBerry phone, which is encrypted.

The mule’s BlackBerry phone was wiped after the Amalfi Drive Isle of Capri home was raided by police on March 20, 2014.

Originally published as Jury has retired to decide fate of alleged drug kingpin Ivan Tesic