Far North’s biggest cannabis busts reveal secret growing hot spots
Since medical cannabis was made available in 2016 Queensland had led the nation as the largest prescriber but recent busts of illegal crops mean the drug remains on the police radar.
Cairns
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THE STIGMA around cannabis and its medicinal use is easing, particularly in Queensland, the nation’s largest prescriber of the controversial medication.
A recent study by the University of Sydney analysed the drug’s medicinal prescriptions issued from 2016, when it was legalised to late 2021.
It found about 250,000 scripts for medicinal cannabis had been approved for Australians since 2016, with 51 per cent of those written for Queensland.
North Queensland’s largest stockist of medicinal cannabis products and Cairns-based WholeLife Pharmacy and Healthfoods has been supplying the drug for about 18 months with pharmacist Brett Christoffelsz praising its effects on his patients while revealing the challenges of administration.
“The market is enormous, there is definitely a need out there and we’re seeing some fantastic results,” he said.
“The manufacturers are growing by the day and there is downward pressure on price.
“And we’ve seen patients, genuine patients with long-term issue, go from other medications to medicinal cannabis and they’re much happier. So far the results are good.”
But Mr Christoffelsz said, unsurprisingly, there were obvious challenges with some “patients” seeking the medication for the wrong reason.
“There’s a list of conditions where cannabis can be used as a treatment and if in the opinion of a doctor a patient presents with one of those conditions, they’re entitled to get it. Whether that patient genuinely has that condition, it’s hard to say,” he said.
“It’s a bit of a minefield for authorities, because there is that grey area. You can’t tell someone they don’t have anxiety, or insomnia.
“But it’s always going to be an issue – drug seeking behaviour – it happens with the opioids as well. But to have someone on cannabis as opposed to opioids, it’s much preferable, better for the body. We’ve seen a significant drop in opioids which is a good spin off.
“And if you are reducing the black market influence, that’s a positive result too, but that was never the aim of legalising medicinal cannabis.”
He said the pharmacy stocked three variants in the product from oils, to a flour and a cartridge which was similar to a vape.
Mr Christoffelsz said the strict nature of documenting scripts, most of which were E-scripts helped add a level of surety against patients abusing the system.
Despite a legal option to access cannabis, Cairns police Detective Sergeant Graham Camp warned cannabis and cannabis products were dangerous drugs in Queensland under the legislation.
“The Queensland Police Service recognises the legal access and appropriate use of medicinal
cannabis pharmaceuticals much like other restricted medicine,” he said.
“Officers may take necessary action if there is suspicion of illicit activity involving dangerous drugs occurring, however, police will always consider the circumstances of each situation.
“Drink and drug driving is recognised as one of the fatal five contributors to fatal and serious injury traffic crashes.
“The consequences of drug driving are very serious. In the past decade we have seen around a 50 per cent increase in drug presence in fatal crashes and we know drugs are a major causal factor in 10 per cent of crashes Australia-wide.”
Here are the some of the biggest cannabis busts by police in the Far North, in recent years.
Tablelands police seize plants, 5kg of cannabis
In May, Tablelands police seized nearly 5kg of drying cannabis and 26 plants after executing a search warrant at a Wondelca property.
Police alleged officers located 26 cannabis plants in two separate gardens on the property, in addition to nearly 5kg of dried or drying cannabis in bowls and hanging from drying racks inside the house.
A 56-year-old Wondecla man was charged with producing a dangerous drug, possession of a dangerous drug and possess drug utensils.
Bellenden Ker resident pleads guilty to cannabis production
A MAN whose cannabis plants were in plain view of anyone who came to visit his rural cane farming property was sentenced to six months imprisonment with an immediate parole release date.
In June, 2021, the court heard police found 16 larger cannabis plants growing in pots near the house of Wayne Redgie Mustafa, 41, and 25 very small seedlings out the front of his home.
Police also recovered 1.96kg of loose cannabis in a number of locations around the home.
There was no commerciality alleged as part of the charges, and Mustafa’s barrister James Sheridan told the court the cannabis production was to combat his client’s “debilitating” spinal pain.
Judge Fantin sentenced Mustafa to six months imprisonment with an immediate parole release date.
Businessman jailed for trafficking CBD oil
FAR North businessman Chris Bowtell in October, 2021 was sentenced to 28 months jail after pleading guilty to possession and trafficking of prohibited Schedule 2 drug cannabidiol for 12 months between March 1, 2019 and March 17, 2020.
Crown legal officer Emily Thambyah told the court Bowtell marketed a range of branded products containing CBD through a slick e-commerce style website after sourcing products offshore and reselling them throughout Australia.
The court heard his total profit was just shy of $170,000, and that he never asked his customers if they had a script.
“He went through great lengths to avoid detection. For example, requesting importers (falsely) label bottles of products and using falsified return addresses on parcels,” Ms Thambyah said.
The court heard it was the first time trafficking of CBD had been prosecuted and no legal precedent had been set.
Suspicious post office staff bust drug operation
SUSPICIOUS Australia Post staff derailed a Cairns man’s seemingly-clandestine method of obtaining commercial quantities of cannabis, in September 2021.
Crown prosecutor Aaron Dunkerton told the court that in December 2019, a post office box was rented at the Clifton Beach Post Office under the name of Julian Percy, with a Victorian address along with email and phone number provided.
Mr Dunkerton said that from December 31 to May 22, the PO box received a number of parcels of similar size and weight, and that Australia Post staff became suspicious.
On May 22, 2020, they opened one and found 1.68kg of cannabis and alerted police, the court heard.
Just shy of two weeks later, a further two packages were received in the PO box, which were seized by police and found to contain 909g and 1.3kg of cannabis respectively.
Luke Peter Swan, 27, arrived at the post office’s front counter with his delivery notification slip on June 6 of that year, and police pounced.
A further package arrived in the PO box on June 15, which contained 642g of cannabis, the court heard.
Justice Henry sentenced him to three years imprisonment with a parole release date at May 12, 2022.
Mates traffic cannabis after financial difficulties
IN SEPTEMBER 2021 two mates who trafficked a huge amount of cannabis over the course of a year after falling into financial difficulties were sentenced for their “foolish” and “greedy” enterprise.
The court heard Shane Andrew Holley, 47, and his friend Mark Anthony Ruse, 55, trafficked at least 62kg of cannabis between January 2019 and January 2020.
Holley’s motivation was in part spurred on by the purchase of a “heritage-listed house” shortly before the onset of the global financial crisis which turned into a “money pit”.
Noting the pair’s respective financial troubles, Justice Applegarth said business failures were a sad feature of the times.
“There is always temptation for people who have failing businesses to sell drugs to keep their businesses alive,” he said.
After watching them over the course of a year, police pounced on January 8, 2020, executing a number of search warrants simultaneously, pulling over the pair as they drove through Gordonvale on their way south to Townsville to make a sale.
Police found 6.717kg of cannabis in one-pound sized vacuum sealed bags in the boot of the car, along with $5000 cash in Ruse’s pocket and $1165 in Holley’s wallet.
Later searches of Ruse’s Bullion Street home located $75,918 and 11.691kg of cannabis.
A search of Holley’s Thomas Street home recovered $48,865, 6.737kg of cannabis and 11.21g of cocaine.
Ruse was sentenced to six years imprisonment and Holley received a five-year sentence, suspended after serving 10 months.
Fasta Pasta drug trafficker sentenced
A Cairns drug trafficker who turned over about $1.2m by having more than 150kg of cannabis couriered from South Australia to Fasta Pasta on Sheridan Street over the course of 10 months was been sentenced for his “significant commercial enterprise,” in October 2021.
The court heard between January and November 2017, Gaetano Antonio Del Giglio told the restaurant’s owner the boxes contained lures for his fishing business.
Del Giglio, who Judge Fantin said was a wholesale distributor of cannabis across the Cairns District, was eventually arrested in March 2018 when police executed search warrants at his home and on his suppliers in Adelaide.
In sentencing him to eight and a half years jail, she set a parole eligibility date of May 26, 2022.
Additional significant cannabis busts as provided by QPS
2014: Police arrested five people following a significant cannabis seizure at Cape York (in vicinity of Lockhart River). Police allegedly located 1703 cannabis plants and 67kg of drying cannabis.
2019: Police allegedly intercepted around 15kg of hydroponic cannabis being couriered to a man in Cairns. He was charged with trafficking cannabis over a 12 month period.
2019/2020: Police allegedly located more than 31kg of cannabis and a significant amount of cash as part of Operation Romeo Socrates. Police arrested 12 people on four charges including trafficking.
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