Stacey Martin: Bartender hid 79 MDMA caps inside herself
A magistrate has spoken of her horror at the lengths young people will go to smuggle drugs into music festivals. It comes as she banned a young partygoer from future events after being found with a condom stuffed full of pills.
Inner West
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A young bartender has been banned from attending festivals and narrowly avoided jail after hiding 79 MDMA pills “inside herself” before an event in December.
Stacey Lea Martin, 24, fronted Burwood Local Court today facing a potential 15-year jail term for charges stemming from her smuggling the drugs into Epik Festival at Sydney Olympic Park last year.
However, Martin was handed a two-year prison sentence while being able to remain in the community and has also been barred from attending music festivals during that time.
Court documents reveal the drugs were found inside Martin after a strip search prompted by drug detection dogs sniffing her out.
During the search, Martin, from Newcastle, removed a condom which contained two packets of MDMA containing 29 capsules and 50 capsules of the drug.
Her lawyer Fouad Awada told the court she had brought the drugs into the festival “as a favour to friends” and was promised some capsules herself if she made it through undetected.
Supported by two friends today, the court heard Martin would “take it all back” if she could.
“It could have had the potential to be fatal,” Magistrate Alison Viney said.
“I have no idea why someone would do something like this … it is astonishing.”
Martin was sentenced to a two-year intensive corrections order after pleading guilty last month.
Epik Festival saw cops stop about 1000 MDMA capsules being brought into the event, with one woman allegedly hiding 800 in her bra and a further 200 inside herself.
Ngan Vy Bui, 18, faces a charge of commercial drug supply and has not entered a plea to the charge.
She will return to Burwood Local Court in March.
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