Jonathan Kyle Gomboso-Dixon faces Tweed court for possessing prohibited drugs, growing almost 50 cannabis plants
A Tweed man’s drug “enterprise” in a shipping container fitted with blacked out glass grew beyond his expectations, a court was told.
Police & Courts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Police busted an enterprise which contained almost 50 cannabis plants in a red shipping container fitted with blacked out glass doors concealing what thrived inside.
Jonathan Kyle Gomboso-Dixon, 36, pleaded guilty at Tweed Heads Local Court on Friday to one count each of possessing a prohibited drug, cultivating a prohibited plant, drug misuse and trafficking.
Gomboso-Dixon was found with cannabis after police raided his Stokers Siding address on the morning of August 3, 2021.
Police documents state officers found the red shipping container and noticed it had two glass sliding doors added to one end of it.
The glass had been blacked out with dark plastic from the inside and there were two long power extension leads, which ran from the house to each end of the shipping container, police state.
Police entered and observed a hydroponic cannabis set up divided between two rooms, separated by an internal dividing wall across the middle of the container, court documents state.
In total, 47 cannabis plants being grown were seized by police. Thirty-two plants were growing in one room and another 15 plants in the other room.
Police also found six electrical transformers, six lamp shades, six heat lamp globes, one filter fan and a gauge for measuring temperature and humidity. Two bottles of budding agent and one glass jar of fertiliser was also found.
Equipment used in the cultivation was seized and then forensically examined.
Fingerprints belonging to Gomboso-Dixon were identified on two Bundaberg Rum bottles marked A and B, which contained liquid fertiliser.
Police also found a wooden bowl containing cannabis and a glass bong in Gomboso-Dixon’s bedroom.
He was arrested and charged at Tweed Heads Police Station on October 11.
Gomboso-Dixon’s defence lawyer said he initially obtained cannabis clippings and his growing became more “sophisticated than he had planned”.
“He had an enterprise that grew a little bit larger than he anticipated,” the lawyer said.
“Fifteen of the plants were two weeks away from harvest, the others were (in) various stages in development.”
The court heard Gomboso-Dixon was “cultivating it for personal use” after he first began using cannabis at age 12.
Magistrate Geoffrey Dunlevy said Gomboso-Dixon had a limited criminal history.
But he convicted Gomboso-Dixon and fined him $300.
Gomboso-Dixon was ordered to complete a 12 month unsupervised community corrections order.
Construction worker’s kebab shop beat down over place in line
A court has heard how a Sunshine Coast construction worker violently bashed an Ocean St punter over an argument about their place in a takeaway shop’s line.
Sick would-be smuggler begs for cosy custody ahead of sentencing
A Mid-North Coast man who tried to help smuggle heroin into Australia from Malaysia has asked to go to jail early while he awaits sentencing, but fears the worst for his health with ongoing “rectal bleeding”.