Malcolm Thomas Mote pleads guilty to supplying 3kg of cocaine in hidden compartment
A roofer who was intercepted on his way to the Gold Coast by Raptor police was found with nearly 3kg worth of cocaine hidden in a secret compartment in his van.
Central Coast
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A 38-year-old Central Coast man has spent his first night in custody after pleading guilty to supplying nearly 3kg of cocaine hidden in a secret compartment in his work van, a court has heard.
Malcolm Thomas Mote, of Mannering Park, faced Wyong Local Court on Tuesday where he pleaded guilty to supplying a large commercial quantity of drugs and having goods in custody suspected of being unlawfully obtained.
An agreed set of facts states officers attached to Strike Force Raptor began to suspect Mote was involved in the supply of prohibited drugs to Queensland in May and set about bugging his white LDV work van.
He was seen driving the van in Tweed and Burleigh Heads on May 23 before returning to his Mannering Park address on Harwood Cl the following day.
Later that morning Mote was seen to visit three properties in Fairfield West in Sydney.
Police raided two of the Fairfield West properties and seized 11.6kg of MDMA and nearly half a kilogram each of cocaine and methamphetamine.
However the facts state police could not prove Mote knowingly took part in the supply of drugs on May 23 or 24.
Two months later on July 11 Raptor police observed Mote leave his Mannering Park address and travelling north.
He was stopped on the M1 motorway at Twelve Mile Creek and told police he was on his way to inspect property he and his girlfriend were looking to purchase inland of the Gold Coast.
Police searched the van but couldn’t find anything until they discovered a false floor and a “hidden compartment” behind the front two seats.
“The storage compartment was screwed shut with a rectangular lid,” the facts state.
“One side of the lid had a hinge, and the other three sides were screwed down. The officers unscrewed the rectangle lid which revealed a hidden compartment.”
Inside the compartment was a plastic Aldi shopping bag containing three blocks of cocaine individually sealed in clear plastic with the word “block” written in back marker.
More was arrested but denied any knowledge of the cocaine.
While he was in custody police searched his Harwood Cl address and found $15,000 in cash on the top shelf of a wardrobe in $100 notes.
Mote’s DNA was later found inside the hidden compartment.
After Mote entered his guilty pleas, the Crown Prosecutor made a detention application stating Mote was clearly “part of a larger criminal syndicate” and a “trusted” member to be left alone with so much drugs.
“This is a very substantial amount of drugs and the court will have no alternative than to sentence him to full-time custody,” the prosecutor said.
Mote’s solicitor Michael Ayache said his client had no prior criminal record and despite the weight, the cocaine only had a purity of about 15 per cent.
He said it was not “practicably inevitable” that Mote would receive a custodial sentence and it was “entirely conceivable” a judge could sentence him to an intensive corrections order.
Mr Ayache said Mote and his girlfriend — who was present in court — had just had a baby.
He said they had sold their respective homes and settled in August on the joint purchase of a property at Dooralong with Mote’s roofing business needed to help cover the mortgage payments.
However Magistrate Justin Peach said Mote was under surveillance from May and would have known he was involved in supplying drugs before his child was born or buying the house with his partner.
Magistrate Peach upheld the detention application and ordered Mote into custody.
He will appear at Gosford District Court on February 9 to set a sentencing date.
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