Gold Coast cocaine dealer sprung after selling cocaine to cops

A GOLD Coast drug kingpin who was running a significant cocaine operation was arrested after he unwittingly sold thousands of dollars of drugs to undercover police.

Alex John Arandale

A GOLD Coast drug kingpin who sold over 100g of cocaine to undercover cops told customers he was selling pills to bikies and could get hold of weapons, a court has heard.
Alex John Arandale, 25, was yesterday sentenced to six-and-a-half years’ jail after pleading guilty to a number of offences in the Brisbane Supreme Court, including trafficking cocaine for 10 months between 2017-18.

He was originally charged with trafficking drugs with aggravated feature that he was a participant in a criminal gang or knew, or ought reasonably to have known, he was selling drugs at the direction of a criminal organisation.

This aggravating circumstance was later dropped.

Alex John Arandale. Picture: supplied.

Arandale trafficked the drugs while on a suspended sentence for domestic violence offences, the court heard.

He was also found in possession of cocaine.

Over the months he hustled drugs, Arandale sold wholesale quantities of the drug to dealers who onsold to customers.

The then 22-year-old coached other dealers about who to sell to and not to peddle drugs to those who had a history of failing to pay.
He was caught by police after selling 136g of cocaine to undercover officers for more than $30,000.

Alex John Arandale. Picture: supplied.

“During the conversations with law enforcement officers he said he could get kilos of cocaine, that he had a pill press at a safe house and was selling pills to the bikies,” the court was told.

The court also heard with the money Arandale made from selling drugs, he put a deposit on a $28,000 motorbike but did not go ahead with the sale.

He also spent the money on shares.

In sentencing, Justice David Boddice found Arandale had engaged in “significant trafficking” that was “plainly for profit”.

He said the man had used encrypted messaging apps to avoid detection.

The 25-year-old father will be eligible for parole in December this year after time already served.

Originally published as Gold Coast cocaine dealer sprung after selling cocaine to cops