Southeast Queensland’s cocaine kings and queens exposed after major drug busts crush supply
Major drug busts in the Sunshine State have exposed a string of unsuspected cocaine dealers, crushing supply. These are the faces of some of the southeast’s drug kings and queens.
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Cocaine may be off the menu for many users in southeast Queensland in 2023 after one of the state’s biggest drug busts in February, seriously hampering the drug’s supply.
Police raids dismantled the complex drug trafficking syndicate which had been operating across the southeast.
Detectives allegedly seized cocaine and ketamine along with more than 18kg of methylamphetamine, approximately $556,000 in cash and two firearms.
Another bad omen in 2023 for cocaine traffickers in Queensland was the jailing of two men in February.
Mark Anthony Dumenil, 50 and Hashanth Arjuna Kulatunge, 51, were both jailed for at least seven years for attempting to possess 30kg of cocaine hidden in a shipping container.
The two ran a business importing recycled rubber and faced Brisbane Supreme Court on February 8 for sentencing on one count each of attempting to possess commercial quantities of unlawfully imported border-controlled drugs.
A jury had failed to reach a verdict on charges of importing drugs at trial last year.
Kulatunge pleaded guilty at the start of the trial, and Dumenil was found guilty, on the lesser charge of attempted possession.
Dumenil was sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment and Kulatunge was sentenced to 12 years, with both eligible for parole after seven years and two months.
Over the past year, major drug busts in the Sunshine State have exposed a string of unsuspected cocaine dealers.
THE FULL LIST OF QLD COCAINE KINGS AND QUEENS
Here’s our most up-to-date list of convicted southeast Queensland coke-dealing drug pushers.
BRISBANE
JAMIL HOPOATE
It was the “fairytale” offer that appeared too good to be true – and in October it landed ex-Brisbane Bronco Jamil Hopoate in jail.
Hopoate, 27, was imprisoned over his role as a courier in a massive drug importation scheme.
After being jailed for at least two years and three months by District Court Judge Sharron Norton, Hopoate kissed his daughter and partner and waved to a large contingent of supporters inside Sydney’s Darlinghurst Court House.
“See you soon” and “love you bra” his supporters yelled out as he was led away by Corrective Services officers.
The court was told that the son of rugby league bad boy John Hopoate was suffering from long-term drug, alcohol and gambling addictions and was paid $10,000 for his role in retrieving part of the drug shipment.
He was arrested after police intercepted a consignment of drugs arriving at Sydney airport from London in May 2021.
Police switched the drugs for a dummy substance and installed surveillance devices.
Hopoate was arrested after he climbed inside a truck linked to the massive 514kg cocaine haul – estimated by police to have a street value of $154m – at Pagewood in southern Sydney before leading police on a brief chase.
Hopoate pleaded guilty to one count of supplying a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug.
Judge Norton said Hopoate’s involvement in the drug shipment was “not a minor role”.
And while he was never going to be a part of the street level distribution of the drugs, he willingly took part in the chain of supply.
Hopoate was facing a maximum penalty of life in prison and was given a 25 per cent discount on his sentence for his early guilty plea.
He was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison, with a non-parole period of two years and three months.
With time already served, he will be eligible for release in July 2024.
Hopoate played 12 games for the Brisbane Broncos before he was let go at the end of the 2020 season and failed to earn a contract with another club.
RICHARD KEVIN ANDERSON
Alleged Mongols bikie Richard Kevin Anderson, 32, who spent six months trafficking cocaine and ice to fund his own drug habit was jailed for a year in February.
Anderson pleaded guilty in the Brisbane Supreme Court to one charge of trafficking in dangerous drugs.
The court heard he had already been given a suspended sentence in August 2020 for possessing dangerous drugs in late 2019.
Defence barrister Martin Longhurst said despite already being sentenced, Anderson was then hit with a fresh drug trafficking charge months later in October 2020 relating to the same offending.
It’s understood the fresh charge was laid in the wake of the execution of bikie Shane Bowden when police began raiding properties allegedly connected to bikie gangs and drug distribution.
Mr Longhurst said Anderson had experienced an “incredibly bad 2019”, he became a heavy drug user and began selling drugs to support his own habit.
He said Anderson was now drug and alcohol free, had good job prospects and had significant family support.
Justice Glenn Martin, when sentencing Anderson, said the trafficking was described as low level wholesaling and street level dealing.
He noted Anderson had already been sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment suspended immediately for 30 months in August 2020 for the earlier related charges.
Anderson was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, to be suspended after he has served 12 months behind bars.
TALA YASMIN ZANOTTI
Former “high level athlete” Tala Yasmin Zanotti walked free from court in July, elated after she was sentenced to a suspended sentence for trafficking in cocaine, including home deliveries and selling to customers in a McDonalds carpark north of Brisbane.
Zanotti, 27, who now owns a lawn-maintenance business, was in the Supreme Court in Brisbane in July where Justice Thomas Bradley sentenced her to four years’ prison, wholly suspended for five years, for trafficking in cocaine between February 4, 2020, and July 19, 2020.
Zanotti also pleaded guilty to other drug charges including possession of cocaine and possession of MDMA which were considered aspects of her trafficking, so she was convicted but not further punished.
In sentencing, Justice Bradley said Zanotti was busted by police when they seized 7.45g of cocaine in four clipseal bags found in Zanotti’s car, and $1960 cash, when they searched it in the carpark of McDonalds in Chermside close to midnight on May 31, 2020.
Defence barrister Gavin Webber told the court Zanotti was a former high-level athlete whose career was ended by injury and she became involved in trafficking drugs during a period of turmoil in her life.
He said her mother had abandoned her at the age of 13 and she had spent a period of time homeless as a teen, and she “appeared to have” a diagnosis of ADHD, which was unconfirmed.
Zanotti wrote a letter to the court saying she had cut ties with her friends in the drug world and had now rehabilitated from drug abuse.
PAUL LUU
Brisbane drug trafficker Paul Luu, who was caught with more than 60kg of various illicit drugs at a motel in Oxley in 2020 was sentenced to 12 years in prison in June.
Luu, 32, was found with multiple suitcases containing exceedingly large quantities of various drugs including 45kg of cannabis, 1kg of cocaine, 3kg of MDMA and nearly 10kg of methamphetamine on December 23, 2019.
Luu was also found with more than $133,000 in cash, 1300 diazepam tablets and two handguns — a .357 caliber Ruger revolver and a .22 caliber Beretta.
Luu pleaded guilty to four counts of possessing dangerous drugs exceeding 200g, one count of possessing a dangerous drug exceeding 500g, one count of possessing a dangerous drug exceeding 2g, one count of possessing a category H weapon, and one count of money laundering at the Brisbane Supreme Court.
The court heard police were conducting surveillance at a motel on the day of the offending and a storage locker in Springfield.
Justice Sean Cooper said the offending happened after three large suitcases, containing more than 45kg of cannabis, were delivered to the Oxley motel room.
Luu was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment for possession of methamphetamine, cocaine, MDMA and cannabis, three years’ imprisonment for possession of diazepam, five years for possession of cannabis, 12 months for possessing handguns and a further three years’ imprisonment for money laundering.
All prison terms are to be served concurrently, with parole made eligible from June due to the 899 days Luu spent in pre-custody, which will be counted as time served.
A conviction was recorded.
CONAN VISSER
Children’s charity founder and TikTok star Conan Visser was given a suspended jail sentence in February after pleading guilty to supplying cocaine to friends while on bail after being charged with assaulting his then-girlfriend.
Visser, who started the former anti-bullying children’s charity I Can I Will, pleaded guilty to seven counts of supplying a dangerous drug and one of drug possession.
Visser, 37, who has attracted 22 million views to his TikTok social media platform documentary series on the effects on his body of drinking alcohol, was paid for the drugs he supplied.
Crown prosecutor, Kimberley Thomas, said Visser sourced cocaine for friends and sold it in a social context, but there was a commercial element.
He was on bail for offences of violence at the time, including an assault on his then girlfriend, and days after he was released on bail on the cocaine charges, he engaged in harassment, the court heard.
The court was told Visser pleaded guilty in 2020 to those offences, which involved assaulting his then-girlfriend in her apartment.
Judge Leanne Clare said Visser’s arrest followed three months of police surveillance of a regular cocaine supplier.
Judge Clare said it was clear that Visser had substances with which to cut the drugs which he shared socially, getting reimbursed by some friends.
Defence counsel Chris Minnery said Visser had received government funding for his documentary series, exploring the mental and physical effects of alcohol use.
In 2020, Visser was given a 12-month sentence to be served as an intensive correction order in the community for domestic violence-related offences.
He forced his way into his then girlfriend’s home during the night and assaulted her, putting his hand around her throat and later slapping her on her face.
He was sentenced to a prison term in June, last year, for using a carriage service to harass the woman in a threatening manner.
But Judge Clare said while on the intensive correction order Visser said he was not interested in domestic violence counselling and did not do much of the training he was told to do.
She sentenced Visser to nine months’ jail, immediately suspended, for an operational period of two years and recorded the convictions.
DANIEL MILOS
Daniel Milos, 45, who has admitted supplying coke from his restaurant by using menu codewords and Uber Eats bags, pleaded guilty in 2020 to 13 charges, including 10 counts of cocaine supply, in the Supreme Court in Brisbane.
Milos pleaded guilty to using Uber Eats bags and organising for buyers to pick up drugs from his chef.
Milos’s restaurant where he trafficked cocaine was called Mariosarti, and was on Sherwood Rd in Toowong. It attracted Brisbane’s elite.
It now trades as Barolos Italian restaurant.
Milos’s guilty plea came after police named him as the “principal target” of a joint Queensland Police and Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission operation targeting cocaine trafficking.
Milos pleaded guilty to charges of supplying $128,000 worth of cocaine to a “law enforcement participant” in eight controlled buys in February, March and April 2017.
He also pleaded guilty to a supply charge related to telling Ryan McIver, then head chef at Mariosarti in Toowong, to supply a customer with a “full feed of ragu”, code for cocaine, at the restaurant on October 1, 2016.
Milos’s younger brother and business partner Peter was bludgeoned to death with a spirit level and a hammer in 2014 in a Morningside home.
A man charged with his murder was acquitted at trial in 2017 and the court heard Peter Milos had dealt a “bad batch” of drugs before his death and was locked in a feud with a rival dealer when he was killed.
MORETON BAY
PACEY JAMAINE HASSELL-MEAD
Young Moreton Bay drug trafficker Pacey Jamaine Hassell-Mead, who dealt in five different drugs over an 18-month period, has turned his life around since hitting rock bottom, a court in December 2021 heard.
The Kippa-Ring man has commenced full-time work and was seeking help for his mental health troubles.
Hassell-Mead, 21, pleaded guilty in Brisbane Supreme Court to seven indictable offences and two summary charges.
They included three counts of possessing dangerous drugs, one each of trafficking in dangerous drugs, possessing a commercial quantity of a Schedule 1 dangerous drug, possessing cash obtained from trafficking, and possessing a thing used in the commission of a crime.
The court heard Hassell-Mead trafficked in five different dangerous drugs between January 1, 2019 and his arrest on June 2, 2021.
He primarily trafficked in cannabis, but also dealt cocaine, MDMA, and two other Schedule 2 drugs.
He had “cut off negative friendships”, commenced full-time work as a fabrication labourer at his uncle’s business, where he hoped to take up an apprenticeship, undertaken rehabilitation for his cannabis dependency with organisation Lives Lived Well, and not committed further offences.
Justice Graeme Crow said Hassell-Mead had a “bright
future” if he continued on his rehabilitative path.
Hassell-Mead was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment with immediate release on parole.
LOGAN
ALEXANDER LY VANN
LANDINA KAO
A pair of barbers were jailed for running a business selling wholesale amounts of cocaine, claiming they turned to crime when Covid-19 lockdowns forced them to shut their barber shop.
Alexander Ly Vann, 32, and his uncle Landina Kao, 36, were in the Supreme Court in Brisbane in September before Chief Justice Helen Bowskill, where they pleaded guilty to trafficking in cocaine at Crestmead, in Logan, over five months until November 2020.
The court heard the pair made 14 sales of cocaine over five months and that they were trafficking significant quantities of cocaine, because they were wholesaling to street-level dealers.
In one deal alone, they sold five ounces, or 142g, of cocaine for $44,000 cash, the court heard.
Chief Justice Bowskill said Vann and Kao showed an “ability to get a very substantial quantity” of cocaine, saying five ounces was larger than the total amount sold by many other drug traffickers.
Chief Justice Bowskill told the pair that the Covid-19 lockdowns was “by no means an excuse” for turning to crime.
Vann, a father of two, who has now changed his name to Alexander Kao, also worked at the barber shop but it closed six months after the pair were charged with trafficking.
Vann most recently worked as an accessory fitter in a tyre store, a plasterer and as a barber from his home.
Kao has been working as a barber on Brisbane’s northside while awaiting sentencing.
Chief Justice Bowskill sentenced both men to a head sentence of five years’ jail, they will be eligible for parole in one year.
REDLAND
JOHN ALEXANDER MCLEAN
Former business development manager John Alexander McLean, caught with near $5000 in cash from cocaine sales, was told he had the key to a possible 18-month jail term in his hands, as the last of his charges were finalised at court in May.
Sentenced at district court in January to 18 months’ jail wholly suspended for two years for supplying illegal drugs, McLean, 44, of Thornlands pleaded guilty to seven charges at Cleveland Magistrates Court in May.
They included possessing dangerous drugs, unlawful possession of restricted drugs and possessing property suspected of having been used in the commission of a drug offence.
An October 2020 raid on a River Gum Terrace residence at 10.30am in Thornlands busted the former business development manager with drugs and cash, the court was told.
Officers found $4900 in cash from cocaine sales, a rolled $20 note with cocaine residue, a brown bag with syringes, 18 tablets of oxandrolone (anabolic steroid medication), 10 tablets of oxycodone (Endone), 50 tablets of the growth hormone anastrozole, digital scales for measuring drugs, and clipseal bags with cocaine residue.
The offending came on the back of a criminal history that included drug offending in 2005 and 2015.
Defence solicitor Nathan Hounsell said his client formerly had a promising career as a business development manager and had taken his significant sentence at district court in January to heart.
Magistrate Zachary Sarra denounced the defendant for putting the community at significant risk and marvelled at the man’s storage of drug activity on his mobile phone.
“It is a smart phone, but dumb criminals,” Mr Sarra said.
McLean was convicted and not further punished.
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