Children living with their ‘meth lab’ dad test positive to drugs

From the outside it was just another suburban home. But it was what police found inside that shocked them. Worse still was the fact two young children were living above the clandestine drug lab where their father cooked MDMA. GO INSIDE THE SUBURBAN DRUG LAB

• Top magistrate slams DPP over court delays
• Overdose blood tests used to trace drug lords

Two children living at an illegal drug lab where their father made ecstasy were so exposed to the chemicals they tested positive to drugs.

When police raided the drug cook’s rented home in Picnic Point in Sydney’s south west in 2017, they found more than 20kg of drug-making powder in a filthy makeshift drug den downstairs. His wife and two young children, aged two and six, lived upstairs.

It is understood that when the children’s hair was tested they found traces of drugs including MDA, a drug similar to MDMA used to make ecstasy.

Inside the drug den at the man’s rented Picnic Point home. Picture: Supplied

MORE FROM AVA BENNY-MORRISON:

‘HOW I LOST MY CHILDHOOD SWEETHEART TO ISLAM’

HOW BASSAM HAMZY BEGAN TWO-DECADE REIGN OF TERROR

The 39-year-old man’s leading role in the significant drug operation was revealed when he pleaded guilty to making and supplying drugs during a hearing at Parramatta District Court this week.

The man had installed CCTV cameras outside his home and used hotel rooms and encrypted devices to avoid detection, the court heard. He also placed tracking devices on his customers’ cars so he knew where they lived in case they didn’t pay up.

His criminal operation unravelled on March 28, 2017, when Strike Force Lovelle raided his home and found 11.45kg of MDA and 12kg of N-formylamphetamine, a chemical used in drug manufacture.

It took the chemical operations unit five days to unpack the drug lab.

NSW police raided the man’s house in 2017 finding more than 20kg of drug-making powder. Picture: Supplied

The man’s wife and two young children, aged two and six, were living upstairs. Picture: Supplied

Crown prosecutor John Sfinas said the man had “set up the clandestine lab and cooked”. Picture: Supplied

Police also found $250,000 cash and a pill press in the man’s house. Picture: Supplied

Crown prosecutor John Sfinas said the accused researched, purchased, installed and used the drug equipment.

“He wasn’t just installed as a cook, he wasn’t someone who was just providing a house,” he said. “He was someone who set up the clandestine lab and cooked.”

Mr Sfinas said the drug making was carried out in the presence of two children.

Police also found $250,000, a manufacturing manual, air pistol and a pill press in man’s home.

In a tapped phone conversation he was heard talking about the “dangerousness of having left something on overnight” and a batch of drugs that didn’t go well.

The Court heard the man had installed CCTV cameras outside his home and used hotel rooms and encrypted devices to avoid detection/ Picture: Supplied

That pointed to the man being motivated by money, Mr Sfinas added.

Defence barrister Michael Ainsworth said his client suffered depression of varying degrees.

“The life event that seems to have diverted him on to the path of criminal conduct of this magnitude was an industrial accident,” he said. “He was severely injured and lost his business.”

He conceded the offences were significant but asked the judge to consider special circumstances, partly because he had been in protective custody in jail.

The man is due to be sentenced on March 8.

He was arrested as part of the same police investigation that has been busting large-scale labs supplying drugs to festivals around Sydney recently.

Originally published as Children living with their ‘meth lab’ dad test positive to drugs