Sam Shenstone: Brit pleads guilty to commercial drug supply
His face is a picture of innocence. But behind the blond hair and piercing eyes is a secret – for which he has finally come clean. The 25-year-old was in fact operating as a big time drug dealer in Sydney’s inner suburbs. The workings of his operation and how police brought him down can finally be revealed.
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A British expat has pleaded guilty to supplying a large commercial quantity of MDMA to police informants.
Police were watching consultant Samuel Shenstone, then 25, and his associates for over three months from September to December, 2019 before they arrested him on December 3.
In that time, Shenstone, from Waterloo, supplied a total of 787.78 grams of MDMA and 75.73 grams of Ketamine to police, according to the facts in the case.
Informants exchanged $52,000 in total with Shenstone, which was all prerecorded such that police could track the money.
Court documents lay out the hundreds of phone calls, Wickr messages and CCTV transactions between Mr Shenstone, his associates and his “clients”, captured by police.
The pretty boy dealer started selling small quantities of party drugs to multiple police informants, with quantities ranging around 0.49 grams to 1.16 grams of MDMA in September and early October, according to the police facts.
Soon, he built up a rapport with one Witness A, who asked for more and more of his “high quality” drugs, and began selling him larger and larger amounts of MDMA and Ketamine.
On October 24, Shenstone sold Witness A 27.88 grams of MDMA for $3000.
He told Witness A: “Yeah I always make sure I get good stuff and pay more for it so everyone likes it! Getting it over from home too so it’s more effort!”
Shenstone collected the drugs from a co-accused at a Bondi Junction unit before delivering a “resealable bag containing a light brown substance” to Witness A.
Between November 15 and 20, Shenstone supplied bags of 137.4 grams of MDMA to Witness A.
Following this request, Shenstone told a co-accused, he would be needing “5 (ounces) every week” before another co-accused dropped off nine bags to his Waterloo apartment.
On November 27, Shenstone sold 160.5 grams of MDMA and 13.8 grams of Ketamine to Witness A, according to the police facts.
At one point in organising the deal, a co-accused told Shenstone: “This geezer (his supplier) is only interested in doing 5 at a time.”
The co-accused later told Shenstone: “I’ll cover the money for these things (to pay the supplier), he (Witness A) can come pay you for it then you can give me the money.
“I’ve got about, about 12 grand at my house. But I’ve got an ounce of coke coming.
“Have you got another 6?”
Shenstone replied: “I’ve got 6 yeah yeah”.
The co-accused can then be heard saying” “Alright listen, less talking on the phone, I’ll be to you for about quarter past six.”
Later that night, Shenstone got into the front seat of the police informant’s car and handed over a plastic bag with three resealable bags with a brown substance inside and one other with a white substance inside.
The informant handed him $17,200.
The last deal before Shenstone’s arrest was the biggest, according to court documents.
Fifteen ounces of MDMA, or 378.9 grams, and one ounce of Ketamine, or 28 gram were involved on the morning of December 3, according to police facts.
Police were waiting in the foyer of Shenstone’s Waterloo home when he walked out holding a Coles bag full of the drugs.
Inside the bag were two smaller resealable bags with a brown substance and one clear resealable zip lock bag with a white substance.
Shenstone will be sentenced in the District Court at a later date.