Alleged heroin trafficker Hoang Van Dam, 47, refused bail undercover sting in Belconnen
A heroin dealer allegedly buried a stash of the drug near a childcare centre and schools in Canberra.
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An “upper level” heroin dealer allegedly stashed massive, high-purity packages of the drug near Canberra schools and a childcare centre in a bid to dodge being caught red-handed with the drugs, a court has heard.
Vietnamese national Hoang Van Dam, 47, of Hawker, pleaded not guilty to a string of five heroin trafficking charges in the ACT Magistrates Court on Monday.
He was arrested on Sunday afternoon after allegedly selling $8500 of heroin to an undercover police officer near Belconnen High School.
Prosecutor Juanita Zankin said Van Dam would bury the drugs in shallow holes before the deals took place in a bid to not be caught with the drugs.
According to court documents, officers monitoring Van Dam’s alleged deals with the undercover cop saw him bury one of the “balls” of heroin along the fence line of the Southern Cross Early Childhood Centre in Scullin.
Ms Zankin said a child or an animal could have unknowingly dug up the “large quantity” of high-purity heroin.
Special Magistrate Margaret Hunter on Monday refused bail for Van Dam, saying burying drugs near the childcare centre, and elsewhere, put the community at risk.
She said the police case against him — largely reliant on closely documented undercover stings — appeared “very strong”.
“The likelihood is that he will receive a term of imprisonment (if he is found guilty),” Ms Hunter said.
Defence lawyer Michael Kukulies-Smith said there was “an element of entrapment or, at least, enticement by the police” and there was no evidence Van Dam would deal drugs to anyone but undercover police.
Ms Hunter said she “didn’t come down in the last shower” and police probably only targeted him knowing he was a dealer.
“I’m not so naive to think police have decided to pick him out of the phone book … and see whether he would deal them drugs out of the blue,” she said.
Documents tendered in court show Van Dam, an unemployed, hard gambling public housing resident, has a previous conviction for heroin trafficking.
Mr Kukulies-Smith said Van Dam had complied with bail when last charged, and “past behaviour is the best indicator of future behaviour”.
Ms Hunter said Van Dam’s past was “rather a double-edged sword” given his conviction for “exactly the same offence” he was in court charged with on Monday.
Van Dam returns to court in April.