Drug smuggler, supplier face sentencing over MDMA supply
A woman caught smuggling close to 1600 MDMA capsules into a music festival has claimed to have been suffering from mental illness and homelessness.
Penrith
Don't miss out on the headlines from Penrith. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A woman caught smuggling close to 1600 MDMA capsules into a music festival — by stuffing hundreds in her bra and inserting the rest inside herself in a condom — has claimed to have been suffering from mental illness and homelessness.
Grace Poo, 23, appeared before Penrith District Court Judge, Graeme Turnbull, on Thursday, October 24, for a sentencing hearing after being found with a total of 1597 capsules at the entrance to the Midnight Mafia dance music festival, held at Sydney Olympic Park in May, 2018.
Poo’s Barrister, Siobhain Climo, tabled documents to the court, including a letter from her client’s psychiatrist, Dr Louise Nash, detailing concerns around undiagnosed mental illness.
Ms Climo said Poo had a tendency of experiencing voices and hallucinations. However, Mr Turnbull claimed psychiatric events could be the result of the 23-year-old’s drug use.
Poo pleaded guilty to supplying a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug and supplying an indictable quantity of a prohibited plant in January this year.
Poo’s former Salvation Army case worker, Colin Young revealed to the court she and her mother, Hong, had been homeless for several days before he worked to secure them emergency care.
“Hong displayed characteristics of mental illness and a serious gambling addiction,” Mr Young told the court. “I asked her about the addiction she talked about, what I consider to be, paranoid delusions and spiritual ideations.
“This was challenging for her daughter to deal with and this was the reason why Grace asked for separation from her mother. Grace has forbearance of her mother.”
Mr Young said Poo was “bewildered by her homelessness” and was forced to “be the mother” in the relationship with her mentally unstable mother.
“Shortly after she was released on bail she contacted me,” he said. “ She had no money and no access to no social support.”
Ms Climo and Mr Turnbull tussled over Poo’s level of involvement in the organised criminal group, which the barrister claims is a “sophisticated network that sees crime bosses groom young women”.
“The offenders role involved the potential dissemination of the large quantity of drugs,” Ms Climo said.
“But she did not have access to those bulk drugs, did not set the price or quantity — her role was simply the delivery person, to transport them into the festival.
“She is not intricately involved, she is at the bottom of the network”.
However, Mr Turnbull rejected this: “she is not at the bottom, she may be near the bottom, but not at the bottom of the crime network”.
“Ms Poo is facing a difficult and serious charge because of the quantity of items she was attempting to bring in,” he said.
“There was an intention to sell a large amount. of drugs.
“The reality is, she was in a position to take some personal profit because of the provision of as much as 40 tablets for herself was a reward for her service. There is a suggestion these were drugs she was going to sell for a profit.
NSW DPP Prosecutor, Burton Ko, said the sale of drugs would have resulted in Poo “accepting offers of reward” after she was granted 40 capsules as part of her payment for delivering the drugs to the festival.
“There was a question around the profit that goes to her for those 40 capsules and the fact that she was looking to extend her financial reward,” he said.
“One of the things Miss Poo was doing is deciding on the profit she was going to make.”
Her co-accused, 26-year-old Julian Martusciello, sobbed in court while appearing before Mr Turnbull for sentencing on Thursday.
On January 23, the Chester Hill man pleaded guilty to supplying 213 capsules of methylenedioxy-methylamphetamine located on Poo by police at the dance festival.
Martusciello barrister, Richard Pontello, said there was a reasonably high likelihood his client would not reoffend, calling for Mr Turnbull to avoid handing down a full time jail sentence.
“A sentence of imprisonment to be served through intensive corrections order is the most suitable action for this case,” he said.
“There is nothing particularly sophisticated around the way they tried to smuggle these drugs in.”
Mr Pontello said his client was supplied with the drugs and “significantly involved” in the process of attempting to smuggle the drugs into the music festival, but had been ridiculed for his role in the crime.
“He also suffered from the embarrassment of losing his career with the National Australia Bank,” he said. “This was After making a full acceptance of his responsibility and showed a great level of remorse”.
Mr Turnbull argued Martusciello was “in cahoots” with other members of the drug network and would have “received substantial reward for his involvement”.
Poo’s barrister, Ms Climo, also called for Mr Turnbull to consider the punishment of home detention, rather than imprisonment.
“She would only able to leave home for various, strict reasons and not able to go about her daily life without restriction,” she said. “Any deviation would be picked up immediately and it would mean that she wouldn’t be able to use any drugs.”
Mr Turnbull said he needed to consider Poo’s poverty and history of mental illness.
But Mr Ko said both offenders were charged with serious offences for financial gain.
“These offences shouldn’t be tolerated within the community,” he said.
Poo, wearing a dark suit jacket, and Martusciello, wearing a navy suit and white shirt, both sat with their head in their hands during proceedings on Thursday.