Toni Millevoi: Beautician illegally imported GBL in eyelash remover

A suburban mum who imported GBL, packaged as eyelash remover, into Australia via her beauty business has tearfully told the court how she feels “really stupid” for her criminal acts.

A suburban mum who imported and trafficked gamma butyrolactone (GBL) into Australia via her beauty business, with the drug packaged as eyelash remover, has tearfully told the court how she feels responsible for the damage.

Toni Renee Millevoi, 50, pleaded guilty to importing and trafficking a commercial quantity of the border-controlled drug GBL through her Cobbitty-based business which distributed beauty products across Australia.

Toni Millevoi.

One of her biggest sellers, the court heard, was the liquid and gel eyelash remover which had the ingredient butyrolactone on the label.

The court heard the penny began to drop on February 6 2019, Millevoi’s 48th birthday, when an undercover police officer arrived at her home and bought 2kg of eyelash remover for $1958 in cash.

At a sentencing hearing at Sydney District Court on Friday, Millevoi gave evidence she recalled a conversation with the undercover operative in which they discussed the rising popularity of the eye lash remover.

The court heard the police officer said “it’s got a good ingredient in it” and referred to ‘G’, to which the mum-of-two replied “what is ‘G?’

“I remember her saying ‘G’ and I’m thinking ‘what’s ‘G’, what does that mean,” Millevoi said, during her cross examination.

The beautician imported GBL.

The court heard transcripts of the secretly recorded conversation revealed the police officer said “you know GBH, you know like GBL”, to which the beautician replied “they put it in people’s drinks?”.

The beautician was aware one of her shipments from overseas had been seized for further examination just the previous month, and gave evidence she searched the internet and contacted family members about her confusion of the situation.

However, on later occasions she sold the undercover policewoman 9kg of the eyelash remover for cash. Millevoi told the court she had concerns about the product at the time, but didn’t believe she was doing anything “illegitimate”.

The court heard the beautician called her sister and mother concerned and in which the product listed as an ingredient ‘butyrolactone’.

The day before the 50-year-old’s arrest on February 28, 2019, she made the decision to speak to a lawyer and made an appointment just hours before a police search warrant was executed.

Millevoi, represented by Grant Brady SC, got emotional when asked about how she felt about her crimes.

“I feel absolutely terrible,” she said. “I don’t understand drugs. When I read about it I feel so responsible that the drugs were out on the street and in such large quantities and could be ruining families. I think about if it is children taking (the drugs). There is just so much that goes through my mind, I have no words.

“I feel very responsible. I feel stupid, I feel really stupid”.

The sentence hearing before Judge Robert Montgomery will continue on Monday.