Adam Carnevale pleads guilty to commercial drug supply
A former panel beater from Dubbo has admitted to supplying 56.5kg of cannabis, telling a court ‘six months of stupidity’ saw him lose everything he had ever worked for.
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Former Dubbo business owner Adam Daniel Carnevale has told a court how his decision to become a drug dealer left him working for $70 a week with hardly any assets to his name.
Carnevale, 45, had pleaded guilty to one count of supplying 56.5 kilograms of cannabis leaf which was more than double a commercial quantity.
He also pleaded guilty to one count of dealing with proceeds of crime worth $416,500.
Carnevale was charged last year over his role in a drug supply syndicate police said operated from July 2018 to March 2019.
He was arrested after police raided a number of properties in areas across Dubbo and the Hunter region.
At a sentencing hearing in Dubbo District Court on Thursday, Carnevale told of how his decision to sell cannabis out of his Pro-Fab Smash Repairs business in North Dubbo left his life in ruins.
“We got to keep my personal tools, all our household belongings, some money my wife Tracey had in her bank account left from her father,” he said.
“We worked hard for 22 years for what we had, it took me six months of stupidity to lose it.”
Soon after he was remanded in custody, Carnevale revealed the stress of his arrest led to a stint in Long Bay jail because he needed to be treated by a cardiologist in Sydney.
“Just after I first got arrested I experienced pretty severe chest pains, I didn’t know at the time it was a heart attack but when I got to Wellington Correctional Centre they did some tests,” he said.
Carnevale said he first started smoking cannabis as a 15-year-old and used it to help him sleep before he was arrested.
“I don’t think I was 100 per cent addicted because I didn’t have it every day,” he told the court.
“I haven’t touched anything while I’ve been in custody.”
Once he’s released from jail, Carnevale said he hoped to leave Dubbo and start a new life with his family somewhere else.
“I’ve learnt my lesson, I’ve absolutely done the wrong thing and I take full responsibility for it, it was the biggest mistake of my life,” he said.
Carnevale is due to be sentenced on October 2.