Janine Cowley: mum of ex-Rebels bikie Leighton Cowley, sentenced for drug supply
A rogue kangaroo leaping into the path of her car was enough to foil the drug smuggling plans of this Hunter mum. The impact sent up to 2000 MDMA tablets “all over the roadway” of the Newell Hwy near Moree.
Newcastle
Don't miss out on the headlines from Newcastle. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Alleged prison murderer sentenced for drug charges
- Pub closed, shopping centre gets deep clean after COVID-19 case
The mother of a former Rebels bikie who got mixed up in a large-scale Hunter drug syndicate by transporting 2000 MDMA tablets across the NSW border for her son, has escaped jail time.
Janine Faye Cowley, 61, was charged with supplying a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug in March last year after she was instructed by son Leighton Scott Cowley to take the 500 grams of drugs to Queensland by car. She pleaded guilty to the charge.
But the plan came unstuck when Ms Cowley hit a kangaroo driving on the Newell Highway near Moree and a number of the tablets had “exploded all over the roadway” or became squashed when the bags had split, a court has heard.
“They are all broken. The bags are busted and some are squashed,” Ms Cowley said in a conversation to her son according to police facts.
Upset, Mr Cowley told his mother to return the drugs to him by post, which she did.
It was a short time later Moree police went to the scene of the collision and found the MDMA tablets all over the road way.
Ms Cowley, her son and two other men — Jack Laidlaw and Leon Gibbons — were arrested by Strike Force Raptor North detectives in May.
It followed an investigation which commenced in November 2018 into the supply of MDMA and methamphetamine in the Hunter.
In Newcastle District Court on Wednesday, Judge Stephen Walmsley SC said he considered Ms Cowley’s role as minor and given she had no criminal record, was entitled to some consideration.
“The objective gravity was at the lower end,” he said.
The court heard Ms Cowley had “deep regret and remorse” for getting involved in criminal activity and suffered a very depressive state since being released from custody.
She was sentenced to a two year intensive corrections order (ICO) which can be served in Queensland where she lives and ordered to accept any treatment for her mental health condition.
Mr Cowley — former sergeant at arms at the Rebels — was jailed on July 10 for eight and a half years, with a non-parole period of four years and six months, as one of the head orchestrators of the syndicate.
He pleaded guilty to supplying almost 1.9kg of MDMA between February and March 2019, including selling 2000 tablets to his mother.
He also pleaded guilty to supplying 850 grams of amphetamines between January and May 2019. Together it netted over $70,000.
Gibbons and Laidlaw were both jailed earlier this year for supplying a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug. Both pleaded guilty.