Cairns Fasta Pasta drug trafficker Gaetano Antonio Del Giglio sentenced to eight and a half years imprisonment

A Cairns drug trafficker who turned over about $1.2m by having more than 350 pounds of cannabis couriered from South Australia to a city restaurant over the course of 10 months has been sentenced for his “significant commercial enterprise”.

A CAIRNS drug trafficker who turned over about $1.2m by having more than 350 pounds of cannabis couriered from South Australia to Fasta Pasta on Sheridan Street over the course of 10 months has been sentenced for his “significant commercial enterprise”.

And it wasn’t just cannabis that Gaetano Antonio Del Giglio had on the boil at the now-defunct restaurant, the Cairns District Court heard on Tuesday.

During the same period between January and November 2017, the 50-year-old supplied one of his major cannabis customers with 19 ounces of cocaine, also delivered to the restaurant and to his own home, the court was told.

Describing Del Giglio’s offending, Judge Tracy Fantin said he told the restaurant’s owner the boxes contained lures for his fishing business.

Gaetano Antonio Del Giglio pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in the Cairns District Court on Tuesday. Photo: Instagram

Del Giglio pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking, one count of burglary in company with property damage, dealing with the proceeds of crime – $100,000 or more, as well as four counts of supplying cocaine and attempting to pervert the course of justice in court on Tuesday.

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.

He was charged and extradited to Cairns, where he was released on bail.

A charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice arose when he visited the home of a man who had already given a statement to police, where police had installed a recording device.

While Del Giglio was wearing a GPS tracker on his ankle, he told the man he needed to complete a statutory declaration saying he’d never seen any cocaine or any cannabis nor any money, the court heard.

Two days after that, Del Giglio was arrested and remanded into custody, where he has since spent 826 days.

Judge Fantin described Del Giglio as a mature man who was motivated to sell drugs for a profit.

In sentencing him to eight and a half years jail, she set a parole eligibility date of May 26, 2022.

Originally published as Cairns Fasta Pasta drug trafficker Gaetano Antonio Del Giglio sentenced to eight and a half years imprisonment