Ricky Meoli: Shire man to remain in jail over importing GBL
A criminal who suffers from Crohn’s disease has made a bold bid for early freedom over his plot to import liquid ecstasy from China.
The Standard
Don't miss out on the headlines from The Standard. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A Sydney drug importer who brought liquid ecstasy from China over the internet will remain behind bars for the next four years after losing an appeal in the state’s highest court.
The Court of Criminal Appeal on Friday threw out Ricky Laurence Meoli’s attempt to reduce his sentence after his lawyer argued he was given an “excessive” jail term of four years and nine months last August.
The 33-year-old Gymea man will be eligible for parole after serving three years in 2024 for his three counts of importing a marketable quantity of GBL.
Meoli’s plan was foiled in 2019 when two shipments of the drug were intercepted by Australian Border Force officials and destroyed.
A third consignment was swapped by law enforcement with water before Meoli picked it up from a Caringbah post office in September 2019. Just two days later he was arrested.
The court heard he was part of a “drug supply business” and supplied about one litre of the drug to another man in August 2019 to sell on to other customers.
Meoli, wary of law enforcement, had changed his phone number and his car multiple times to avoid detection.
Police, however, had intercepted his calls and were monitoring his messages.
His defence lawyer had previously told the court that Meoli’s offending was a “classic escalation in drug dependence” which saw him battle his own drug problems before getting involved in supply.
“This offender had a very serious drug problem and had it for many, many years,” he said at the time.
The court heard Meoli suffers from Crohn’s disease.
He appealed the severity of his sentence because his lawyers argued it was “excessive” and that the judge who jailed him failed to consider whether Meoli was likely to reoffend again.
The three Supreme Court Justices on Friday threw out his appeal with one noting that Meoli was on a bond and a community corrections order at the time he was trying to import drugs.
More Coverage
The ‘holy grail’ of church property portfolios revealed
Towering skyscrapers, hundreds of homes, thousands of commercial buildings and expansive farmland – the holy grail of property portfolios of major churches can be revealed. See the list of property sales in your suburb.
Swoop, there it is: NSW’s suburbs with the most magpie attacks
You know spring is here when you have to hold a stick above your head and run from a swooping magpie. With swooping season well underway, we reveal the suburbs with the highest number of magpie swoops and attacks.