‘I pretty much supply the whole Central Coast’: Nateesha Barlin, Dylan Shaw to be sentenced
SHE was a gym junkie and topless model who loved showing off her taut body on social media but behind the scenes Nateesha Barlin and her boyfriend built a secret drug empire, importing and selling illegal steroids. At one stage this once “ugly duckling” boasted of supplying “the whole Central Coast.”
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NATEESHA Barlin was the “ugly duckling” who had a difficult childhood and was bullied after her parents split until she fell into the “gym culture” where she was introduced to steroids.
From there the lure of easy money was too much to resist as the topless waitress and her beefcake beau Dylan Shaw began a “criminal enterprise” to import and distribute steroids, testosterone and human growth hormones.
At one point Barlin, 23, boasted “I pretty much supply the whole Central Coast”.
But their glamorous life of gym selfies and raunchy bikini shoots came crashing down on November 7, 2016, when Australian Border Force (ABF) officers raided the little granny flat they rented at the back of a Jilliby property.
It was the culmination of a two-year sting in which ABF officers intercepted 13,672 tablets, 11.2 litres of testosterone, 600ml of anabolic steroid, 195 vials of Somatropin, 120ml of Clenbuterol, 20 vials and 55 ampoules of human growth hormone and 102 capsules of Oxymetho-lone (Anesterone). between May and October in 2016.
As a result of the seizures, ABF investigators conducted a series of raids which began at their Jilliby granny flat where officers seized a further 12 litres of performance and image enhancing drugs (PIEDs), 100g of cannabis and 300 vials believed to contain human growth hormone.
They also searched Shaw’s parents house at Warnervale and Barlin’s mother’s house at Tacoma.
The pair were charged with several offences before Barlin eventually pleaded guilty to one count each of importing testosterone and the deemed supply of anabolic steroids.
Shaw, 24, pleaded guilty to three charges including importing human growth hormone, anabolic steroids and the deemed supply of steroids.
For the first time a sentencing hearing in Gosford District Court today revealed just how easy it was for the pair to set up their steroid trade where they expected to be “getting big lumps of money at a time”.
In a text message exchange, tendered as part of an agreed set of facts, Shaw told her “when it all rolling smooth and we have our customers we will be getting 5k to 10k at a time it will all be worth it”.
To which Barling replied: “Just so annoying there’s so much money to be made and we have no bottles fmlllll”.
The agreed facts revealed the couple were ordering the steroids and human growth hormone from China and the Philippines and getting it shipped through the mail to their granny flat or their parents’ addresses.
In the declaration section the goods were listed as by the suppliers as “cleaner”, “labels”, a “gas flow valve and housing” or simply unreadable.
They were consigned in the name of a relative and arrived in large unmarked bottles.
At the granny flat ABF officers also seized ledgers setting out various transactions, a crimping device to attach vial lids and commercial labels relating to PIEDs.
When investigators arrived Shaw snapped his mobile phone but by then it was too late.
ABF officers had already downloaded it three months earlier when the couple returned from a holiday to Phuket and they were stopped at Customs for a baggage examination.
They took dozens of screenshots from the phone including one of Shaw listing a number of PIEDS for sale on the closed Facebook group titled ‘Swole Ninja Community’.
In the Crown’s written submissions, tendered in court, the prosecutor said the offenders were operating a wholesale business for profit where they would import a combination of wholesale premixed PIED substances, or raw ingredients “for the purposes of repackaging the substances into smaller, labelled bottles to on-sell to customers”.
“The current offending doesn’t involve a traditional hierarchal structure, as might be expected to be seen in typical drug importation matters,” the submissions read.
“Rather the co-offenders took advantage of the ready availability of PIED products in overseas markets, and with the autonomy that the internet affords, were able to establish an independent commercial operation.”
In court the prosecutor said unlike other drugs such as cocaine or ecstasy, where there was usually a “Mr Big” and a criminal structure that extended down, steroids were “readily available on international markets”.
“Maybe they were using performance enhancing drugs at the time but that was not the only or pure motivation,” she told the court.
“It’s motivated by financial gain primarily.”
However Shaw’s barrister told the court it was more for personal use and for friends “if they wanted it” and that the ledgers ABF investigators found did not contain “names” or recorded transactions.
Instead he described them more as a price sheet and disputed Shaw’s posting to the closed Facebook group was advertising.
Barlin’s solicitor meanwhile told the court she had been subject to ridicule and lost her job as a vet nurse following media reporting of the matter.
He said she had a difficult childhood after her parents’ separation and was bullied having felt like the “ugly duckling”.
“What is particularly relevant in this particular offence is her perception of herself and the bullying she felt as a result of how she looked,” he said.
Her solicitor said she fell into the “gym culture” which “introduced her to steroids”.
“She was aware they were illegal, she was not aware of how serious the offences were (compared to other drugs such as heroin),” he said.
He dismissed a text she sent claiming to “supply the whole Central Coast” as the boasting of a young person who “made statements to make her seem popular”.
Their bail was continued and they will be sentenced on June 26.