Mcauley Punga Lopeti: Botany-based cocaine dealer slammed by Manly magistrate

Frustrated with out-of-towners selling cocaine to cashed-up customers on the northern beaches, an angry magistrate has told a young drug-dealer to stick to his “own turf”.

Mcauley Punga Lopeti outside Manly Local Court on Thursday. Picture: Manly Daily

An angry Manly magistrate has unloaded on a “dial-a-dealer” from Sydney’s south, telling the cocaine supplier: “If you want to be a gangster, do it on your own turf.”

“Why are people from out of town … driving here to sell drugs?” magistrate Robyn Denes asked in Manly Local Court on Thursday.

“We deal with it every week. It’s a huge problem.”

Ms Denes made those remarks while sentencing Mcauley Punga Lopeti, 23, to an 18-month intensive correction order.

Lopeti, an unemployed Botany man, had earlier pleaded guilty to charges of supplying an indictable quantity of a prohibited drug and dealing property that was the proceeds of crime.

Mcauley Punga Lopeti, 23, of Botany, must do 200 hours community service as part of his intensive correction order. Picture: Manly Daily

Northern Beaches Police proactive crime team officers pulled Lopeti’s rental car over late on Friday, June 28, after they saw him making a kerbside drug sale on Pacific Pde, Dee Why.

They found $12,650 in cash in the centre console and $1100 in his wallet, as well as eight small resealable plastic bags of cocaine in the driver’s side door.

Police also seized two mobile phones, including one that was receiving constant messages through WhatsApp.

Lopeti’s solicitor told the court the 23-year-old used to work in the construction industry, but work had dried up and he was trying to earn money to assist his parents.

There is no suggestion Lopeti’s parents knew about their son’s illicit activities, and they are not accused of any wrongdoing.

Manly magistrate Robyn Denes said “families are destroyed” by cocaine. File picture: iStock

Ms Denes, speaking directly to Lopeti, asked him about his involvement in the chain of drug supply.

“Why don’t you sell the stuff in Botany?” she asked.

“It’s probably because people in Botany can’t afford it … so you come here.

“Families are destroyed by this drug.

“You are part of the breakdown in the fabric of society.”

Police spotted Mcauley Punga Lopeti selling cocaine. File picture: iStock

Ms Denes also asked Lopeti if he wanted to be involved with organised drug gangs.

“They kill people,” the magistrate told the 23-year-old.

“They are not your friends.

“Now, someone further up (the supply chain) has lost 12 grand and their drugs.

“They’re not going to be happy”.

Ms Denes said illegal drug supply was like a chess game and that Lopeti, as a “low-level street dealer”, was just a “pawn”.

“Pawns get kicked off the board … it’s all about the kings and queens,” she told him.

In sentencing Lopeti, Ms Denes also said: “I’m not naive enough to think that this was your first rodeo selling cocaine.”

Lopeti, who had no previous criminal convictions, was convicted and ordered to complete 200 hours of community service as part of his intensive correction order.

Ms Denes also urged Lopeti to warn his friends that selling cocaine was not worth the risk of going to jail.