Jarrad Bridge: Ex-seamen sentence for drug importation role

A once proud member of the Australian Navy has told of his struggles to fit back into society – which ultimately led to his involvement in a major international drug plot.

Jarrad Bridge pleaded guilty to possessing 79kg of imported ‘ice’.

A man trained for war who once held a proud position in the Australian Navy has revealed the inner pain which led to his connection to an international drug importation of 79kg of ‘ice’.

To those closest to him, unemployed veteran Jarrad Leslie Bridge appeared to be living a more ‘stable’ life, with plans to buy a house with his partner and start a family of his own.

However, the 32-year-old had embroiled himself in plans with two of his ex-navy pals, Michael Fraser and Graham Butt, to collect and transport millions of dollars worth of ‘ice’ hidden inside an industrial mixer to pay off a paltry $2000 drug debt.

Jarrad Bridge.

On July 14, 2019, Bridge was with his military mates as Fraser inspected a Sylvania garage where the importation was ultimately going to arrive. Bridge gave evidence he was unaware of any sinister motives for the visit and simply sank beers in the backyard with the resident.

Two days later, the agreed facts reveal Bridge met Fraser at Cronulla Sharks baseball complex where they ate together, before sitting together inside a parked car for an hour and a half. Bridge denies any discussions about drugs took place.

The pair returned to the Sylvania garage and met Butt there. Bridge remained outside, drinking beer, as others prised the drugs out of the industrial mixer into boxes. The 32-year-old said when he loaded some boxes into his car and drove to Butt’s Malabar home with the others, that was when he became suspicious of the criminal operation he was in.

The former seamen said he had embarrassed his family.

The men returned to move and dump the remnants of the machine, then later returned to the Malabar residence when police pounced.

When police asked Bridge what he was up to he said “just helping a mate move”, the agreed facts state. The ex-seaman, when pressed, said he didn’t know who he was helping move.

Bridge, in giving evidence, said he had struggled to fit into society following his medical discharge from the navy and had turned to booze and recreational drugs as a result of his PTSD and depression.

“I come from a very proud background and to be sitting here in jail I have embarrassed myself and my family,” he said. “I have seen and witnessed first hand the effect that drug (ice) has on the community.”

Bridge will be sentenced for possessing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug next year.

Fraser has been sentenced to six years jail for importing a border controlled drug, and Butt for five and a half years for aiding and abetting the possession of the ‘ice’.