Rian Kinloch: Nikki Kinloch admits role in scheme to sneak $77K worth of drugs to brother in jail
An Illawarra woman has admitted her role in a failed plot to sneak up to $77,000 worth of drugs to her criminal brother inside jail.
Illawarra Star
Don't miss out on the headlines from Illawarra Star. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- ‘Terrible neglect’: man admits act of cruelty against family dog
- Man arrested after cop pursuit in the Illawarra
An Illawarra woman has admitted to helping her brother, a convicted criminal, try and sneak more than $77,000 worth of drugs into jail.
Nikki Kinloch faced Wollongong Local Court on Friday, where she pleaded guilty to supply prohibited drug and cause to be carried by post article with controlled drug/plant, after she packed 194 Buprenorphine strips into a postal bag bound for her brother Rian at Wellington Correctional Centre.
Documents tendered to Wollongong Local Court reveal Rian used jail phones to call his sister Niki and two other women numerous times between March 1 and March 11, as part of a scheme to sneak 194 buprenorphine strips into Wellington Correctional Centre.
During these phone calls, the foursome hatched a plan to procure and smuggle the buprenorphine strips into the jail so Kinloch could sell them.
On March 11, court documents set out that Nikki took the drugs to Unanderra Post Office and posted them to an address in Dubbo.
As part of the process, Nikki printed her name and Figtree address on the bag, as well as her phone number.
On March 16, Wellington Correctional Centre received information from Correctional Intelligence Officers that Rian had been making suspicious phone calls, and that a package full of drugs destined for the jail would be arriving in Dubbo later that day.
However, police intercepted the delivery, finding 8.2 grams of buprenorphine strips stuffed inside several water balloons, a “common concealment method for drugs to be taken into jail”, police claim in the documents.
In the documents, police claim that if Rian had the chance to sell the drugs, he could have made between $38,800 and $77,600.
“Police are of the opinion this has been an ongoing enterprise for the period of time Rian has been in custody and all accused have benefited from this,” court documents read.
Rian was arrested and charged with drug supply while on bail some months later and was returned to custody, while Nikki was charged on March 13.
Last month, Rian was jailed for 10 months, with a 5-month non-parole period for his role in the enterprise.
Nikki, however, will return to court next month for sentencing.