Matthew Pearce gives evidence of involvement in Hunter drug syndicate, supplying ‘party drugs’
In extraordinary evidence given by Hunter drug kingpin Matthew Pearce, he told the court he was addicted to cocaine before he had to start selling drugs to “keep his head above water”
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In the height of his drug addiction, he was using more than a gram of cocaine a day.
But once the money started to run out, he turned to selling drugs, a court has heard.
Matthew Shane Pearce, 35, told Newcastle District Court he wanted his mates to think he was a “big shot”, embellishing the large quantities of drugs he was importing from the UK, and the thousands of dollars he received, while in reality he was “just trying to keep his head above water”.
The former Newcastle personal trainer was the kingpin of a Hunter drug syndicate which operated across Newcastle and Lake Macquarie supplying cocaine and the potentially deadly industrial solvent 1-4 Butanediol, an alternative to party drug GHB.
It involved high-profile names including former NRL star Jarrod Mullen and Les Mason, the brother of NRL player Willie Mason.
His brother Brett Pearce also worked for Matthew as a courier, earning thousands of dollars making trips up and back to Sydney.
But the elaborate network all came crashing down when Strike Force Castlestead, lead by Lake Macquarie detectives, busted the syndicate in December 2018.
In court on Thursday, Matthew Pearce — who had already pleaded guilty to the manufacture and supply of a commercial quantity of drugs and drug importation — gave evidence at a sentence hearing, in a bid to resolve a dispute of facts over the quantities involved.
“It gave me an escape and made me feel like I was bullet proof,” Pearce told the court about his cocaine habit.
“Looking back now I’m ashamed and disgusted by my behavior. My actions have hurt the people I love the most.
“My partner left me, my business is gone.”
Defence lawyer Grant Brady detailed the various drug deals orchestrated by his client.
They included importing 80 litres of 1-4 Butanediol for Mason to exchange with Sydneysider Aaron Macey, which he knew as ‘AZ’.
“I thought it was going to be used for cleaning,” Pearce told the court
“I had suspicious from the start what it was used for. When I did research, I found it was used for a party drug.
“After I sold 80 litres, they said it was too thick for consumption and it needed to be thinner.”
Pearce is disputing that he only supplied 130 litres of 1-4 Butanediol, not the 163 litres suggested by police.
Pearce also detailed about his drug contacts on the Central Coast and Brisbane who imported cocaine from the UK and how he used various PO Boxes across the Hunter to receive the drugs, communicating via Wickr and paying by Bitcoin.
He also told the court he supplied cocaine to a mate and sold him DMAA, a banned sports industry stimulant, used to cut cocaine.
The Pearce brothers were arrested in December, while trying to exchange 338 grams of cocaine with Macey.
The court also heard since Pearce had been in custody he’d been subject to assaults and ridicule because he suffers from inflammatory bowel disorder, Crohn’s disease, which can see him soil himself without notice.
“I got king hit from behind when it happened in the yard at Long Bay,” he said.
“I would throw up constantly on the food so I would have cereal 3-4 times a day.
“When I was arrested I was 109 kg, now I’m 92kg, but I have been as low as 85kg.”
Brother Brett, Macey and Mason pleaded guilty to supplying a commercial quantity of drugs and were all sentenced to jail earlier this year.
In February, former Newcastle Knights captain Jarrod Mullen was spared a jail sentence after he pleaded guilty to one charge of supplying cocaine and was given a two years community corrections order and 300 hours community service.
The hearing continues.