Jason Navio: Prospect Mini Cooper coke dealer admits to $220k drug stash
A drug dealer who was found with a stash of cocaine and cash in his Mini Cooper has left his mother in tears as he was handed his sentence in court.
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A magistrate has lashed a western Sydney drug dealer who was found with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cocaine in his Mini Cooper, warning he was a “millimetre” away from going to jail.
Jason Navio, 25, of Glenmore Park, received a stern warning from Magistrate Kevin Hockey when he was sentenced for drug supply and dealing with the proceeds of crime at Parramatta Local Court today.
Navio was busted with $220,000 worth of cocaine in his car when police pulled him over on the Great Western Highway at Prospect on the evening of August 16, last year.
After coming under police notice for his erratic driving in Toongabbie, officers stopped Navio outside the Prospect Hotel.
When asked where he was travelling to, Navio told the police he had been visiting a friend, but his anxious behaviour raised the officers’ suspicions.
A search of his car uncovered a stash of cocaine, more than 230g in total, concealed in envelopes, plastic sandwich bags and rolled up in a $5 note.
When asked what the substance was, Navio confessed: “Yeah it’s mine, it’s in my car. I’ll own that”.
A further search of the car uncovered $1240 in cash hidden in a brown leather bag, suspected to be from drug deals.
However, his claim that the cash was won on poker machines at the Peachtree Hotel in Penrith did not hold up in court.
In sentencing today, Magistrate Hockey told Navio he was “standing on a knife’s edge” of going to jail.
“I am within a millimetre of sending you to jail full time,” he said.
“Because of your plea of guilty and the steps you have made since this offending and the comments made by yourself and others, I am prepared to give you an opportunity to stay out of jail.
“If you throw this back in my face or don’t take this order seriously you, will go straight to jail.”
The court heard Navio had a clean criminal record and had pursued rehabilitation since being charged last year.
His mother could be heard sobbing loudly in the courtroom as she learned her son would not be sent to jail.
Navio was placed on an Intensive Corrections Order for 18 months and was ordered to perform 300 community service.
“This is a chance to repay the community for what you have done,” Mr Hockey said.