11 Victorian street level drug dealers exposed: Elizabeth Renouf, Luke Blackburn, Tess Rowlatt, Rylee Park among those in courts
From tradies who sold oxy to a morgue worker who took part in wild and drug-fuelled “unsafe group sex”, these 11 street drug dealers and traffickers have been punished.
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Drug dealing and trafficking is rife in Victoria.
Of the 112,085 finalised court cases in the state in 2022-23, almost 5 per cent were related to illicit drugs.
And of those, more than 90 per cent had guilty outcomes.
But as Victorian officials and officers of the court continue to reiterate – dealers and traffickers get caught “sooner or later”.
Here are 11 of Victoria’s street-level drug dealers.
TESS ROWLATT
A glamorous Melbourne dealer will spend no further time behind bars despite copping to a major drug racket.
Tess Rowlatt, 34, was sentenced in the County Court in February to time served – 419 days – after pleading guilty to trafficking a commercial quantity of drugs.
Rowlatt became the focus of a targeted operation conducted by the Victoria Police Major Drug Squad in mid-2021.
Investigators covertly tailed Rowlatt and another accused drug player.
The investigation lasted months and involved hours of physical and electronic surveillance.
Drug Squad detectives moved in and arrested Rowlatt at her Upper West Side Spencer St apartment on October 21, 2021.
Rowlatt initially faced more than 70 charges including trafficking a large commercial quantity of meth and heroin trafficking and trafficking deadly party drug 1,4 butanediol.
However, Rowlatt, who also pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, eventually went down for just two major drug offences.
Rowlatt also pleaded guilty to using a false document to prejudice others, handle stolen goods and commit an indictable offence while on bail.
The Melbourne Magistrates’ Court had earlier heard allegations Rowlatt shifted between 16 separate Airbnb properties, including the View Hotel St Kilda and Upper West Side in the city.
It’s alleged Rowlatt stayed at the properties for durations ranging from a night to a few days between July 23 and October 21, 2021.
It was also alleged Rowlatt booked and secured her Airbnbs with bogus IDs and forged essential worker permits.
Police had alleged Rowlatt sold drugs while living at various Airbnbs.
Investigators, who seized Rowlatt’s devices, alleged there was evidence she made multiple drug transactions, including a single deal worth $34,000, the magistrates’ court was told.
Rowlatt claimed, via social media, she graduated from Monash University with a bachelor of business majoring in marketing before holding sales roles within multiple companies.
Rowlatt was convicted and handed a four-year community correction order.
ELIZABETH RENOUF
A Shepparton meth dealer was told to turn her life around, with a magistrate saying she was “supporting an industry that is killing people”.
Elizabeth Renouf, 51, pleaded guilty in the Shepparton Magistrates’ Court in March after police raided her house in October, finding cocaine, meth, prescription drugs Diazepam and Predisolone, and a mobile phone.
Police also found a CCTV hard drive, a Victorian registration plate and $250 in cash.
The texts on Renouf’s phone revealed messages of people wanting to purchase meth, such as “Could I tick 2 until tomorrow Liz” and “Can you do me a point and I’ll fix you up Friday”.
Following her arrest, Renouf admitted to police she was trafficking meth.
Renouf said she had cocaine and MDMA as she wanted to try it.
The 51-year-old was on bail at the time of her arrest.
Magistrate Victoria Campbell told Renouf she needed “to not be living that lifestyle anymore”.
She said Renouf’s actions were “supporting an industry that is killing people”.
Renouf suffers from Dercum’s disease, a rare disorder characterised by multiple painful growths consisting of fatty tissue that occur mainly on the trunk and upper arms and legs, her lawyer Anthony Coote told the court.
Ms Campbell acknowledged Renouf’s physical disability and the chronic pain she was in when deciding her sentence.
“I’ve taken into account all that’s been put on your behalf,” she said.
“I take into account your physical disabilities, your prior history and your current circumstances.”
She was given a 12 month community corrections order and warned any breach would see her jailed.
ZAC TATCHELL
A Mildura man was told to leave town and only return to visit his parents “from time to time” after he was busted with a stash of drugs and $14,000 in cash.
Zac Tatchell pleaded guilty in April to trafficking charges after police found a ZipLoc bag containing methylamphetamine and incriminating text messages on an Apple iPhone during a search at a Teal Dr property in November last year.
Along with the methylamphetamine, the court heard the search warrant also uncovered two containers of 1,4-Butanediol on the coffee table and cocaine on the lounge room floor.
Officers also found $14,000 hidden in a washing machine.
Tatchell admitted to police he bought the drugs online saying they “helped bring me to life,” following injuries he suffered after a car accident in 2021.
He claimed the money police discovered was from online gambling, and that he was saving it up to go to rehabilitation.
Magistrate Patrick Southey agreed rehab was a good idea, and also suggested that he leaves Mildura or face the prospect of relapsing.
Tatchell’s parents who appeared in court and his own lawyer, Rachel Storey also agreed this was a good idea.
Tatchell himself was in favour of that option.
“I want to get out of there, I agree with you 100 per cent, there’s no point in me going back to Mildura,” he said.
Mr Southey gave Tatchell a six-month sentence, with 156 days reckoned as time served.
“Get out of town and don’t come back, except to visit your parents from time to time. Please don’t come back here.”
LUKE BLACKBURN
A Gippsland motocross star was done for a large-scale social media drug dealing racket after he was caught with bute, cocaine, Oxy, cash and an imitation gun.
Luke Blackburn, 23, pleaded guilty in the County Court in April to various drug charges including trafficking a commercial quantity 1,4 butanediol.
Blackburn, who also pleaded guilty to trafficking cocaine and Oxycodone, was nabbed in transit while he hightailed through Koornalla on October 27, 2022.
The court heard police were racing to Blackburn’s Koornalla home to execute a search warrant when they spotted the wayward drug dealer driving away from the address.
Investigators intercepted Blackburn on Traralgon Creek Rd and searched his Holden Commodore ute.
Blackburn told cops he had “some painkillers for his mum” in the ute but “she didn’t have a prescription”.
Police seized multiple packets of highly addictive opioid Oxycodone – also known as ‘hillbilly heroin’ – hidden throughout Blackburn’s vehicle.
Police then tracked to Blackburn’s Traralgon Creek Rd home to execute the search warrant and seized almost 3kg of lethal party drug 1,4 butanediol stashed in a kitchen freezer.
Blackburn, who also pleaded guilty to deal with the proceeds of crime, was nabbed with cocaine, a gel blaster, $2705 cash and 1083 Oxy pills.
Blackburn was arrested and hauled away for questioning but gave a “no comment” interview and refused police access to his phone.
However, cops managed to access Blackburn’s device which revealed the fallen motocross rider had “actively engaged in the sale of cocaine via Threema, Facebook Messenger and Snapchat” between August 3 and October 22.
Blackburn, who the court heard currently works as an apprentice electrician, also “actively engaged in the sale of Oxycodone” via Snapchat between August 7 and October 27.
Police also downloaded a photo depicting Blackburn posing with a “large number” of Oxy blister packets.
The court heard Blackburn was a competition motocross rider but abused Oxy after he broke his ankle.
Blackburn, now of Moe, had his bail extended for sentencing.
MATTHEW UNDY
A Mildura drug dealer was offered an alternative to jail by a magistrate after pleading guilty to charges of trafficking meth.
Matthew Undy, 29, pleaded guilty at the Mildura Magistrates’ Court in February to trafficking methylamphetamine and failing to comply with a direction to assist and was offered a chance to complete his stint in rehab, and receive a community corrections order once he had completed the program, rather than go to prison.
The court heard Undy was with a mate when they were pulled over by police in October of last year., who found several zip lock bags containing methylamphetamine belonging to Undy, along with 1.5g of the drug that he had hastily tipped out on to the floor of the car.
Police analysis of Undy’s mobile phone uncovered social media and text messages which confirmed drug dealing activity between July and October of 2023.
Police claimed Undy was dealing not only to make money, but to support his own addiction.
Undy told the court things had been good for him at The Cottage, a rehab facility in Shepparton, before adding, “I haven’t touched a drug since I have been out of remand.”
He has been at the rehab facility since February 6, and will need to be there for three months to complete his program.
“There is no point in taking him out of an excellent rehab facility where he is doing well and sending him back to jail,” Magistrate Patrick Southey said as he adjourned the case.
NICHOLAS JOSEPH ODAR
A Numurkah man hauled into a police station on drug charges had his phone answered by an officer — with the person on the other end looking to make a deal.
Nicholas Joseph Odar, 35, pleaded guilty to intentionally damage property, possessing cannabis, trafficking methamphetamine, failing to answer bail, dealing with property suspected of being proceeds of crime and committing an indictable offence while on bail last August.
The court heard Odar was seen yelling in the street where an associate lived on December 14 last year before he kicked their car, causing $800 damage
When police interviewed Odar and asked him why he damaged the car, he told them: “I don’t know, I was angry”.
On a separate occasion, Odar was seen riding a pink box bike without a helmet by police in Numurkah about 8.11pm on August 19 this year.
He was arrested and interviewed at the Numurkah police station, the court heard.
Police conducted a further search and found three ziplock bags of methamphetamine, cannabis in bum bags and $389 in cash.
Odar made full admissions to the possessions.
“It’s mine, I’m a junkie,” he told police.
Odar remained at the police station overnight.
The court heard Odar had an outstanding warrant for failing to appear at the Shepparton Magistrates’ court on July 24.
The next day about 10.40am, Odar’s phone rang from an unsaved number and police answered.
The person on the line asked for drugs, not realising they were on the phone to police.
The call eventually ended but rang again from a different number.
A woman on the phone told “Odar” she needed drugs “by the afternoon”.
Odar’s defence lawyer Ropate Cabealawa was aware Odar was a “heavy drug user”, who admitted to being a “junkie”.
Mr Cabealawa told the court Odar was a “vulnerable” person who was sorry for his offendings.
He also told the court Odar suffered from schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder and was “trying to stop voices in his head”.
Magistrate Ian Watkins encouraged Odar to undertake drug and alcohol treatment.
Odar was convicted and placed on a community corrections order for a period of 18 months.
JESSICA MAHINAY
A former Thai restaurant worker was dealing meth to Mildura locals, using an encrypted messaging service to move the drugs, as well as delivering to users despite being disqualified from driving.
30-year-old Jessica Mahinay was, in January, sentenced to two and a half months in jail after police found methylamphetamine, more than $2000 and ammunition at her property.
Mahinay was driving to complete deals around Mildura without a license and leaving the drugs for her customers to find when she was unable to meet them.
“It’s in the chair, inside the zipper, I put blue tape on it,” she replied to an encrypted message to one customer looking to buy $50 of the drug.
“This is as good as a burner talking here lol,” was another of the messages Mahinay sent when setting up a drug deal for half a gram of meth on the encrypted messaging app Signal.
Police discovered the incriminating messages after analysing Mahinay’s phone when they combed her Mildura home in early December 2023.
Along with the messages, officers also found eight small zip lock bags containing methylamphetamine, deal bags and scales at the property.
Despite offering no comment during her recorded police interview, Ms Mahinay pleaded guilty to the charges, something Magistrate Patrick Southey took into account when sentencing her.
“I take into account, in your favour, you pleaded guilty … had you not pleaded guilty it would have been four months imprisonment,” Magistrate Patrick Southey told Mahinay.
“You’ve got the foundations of a happy life, good work experience, work ethic, family,” he continued.
“Having said that, trafficking in methylamphetamine is a very serious offence … I have to send a message not only to you, but others that if you traffic in such a hideous drug you can expect jail.”
Mahinay also received a fine for the ammunitions charge and will spend twelve months on a community corrections order following her release from prison.
GLENN ROSIER
A morgue worker who transported dead bodies has been busted trafficking meth after he became hooked on ice during wild, drug-fuelled “unsafe group sex”.
Glenn Rosier, 47, pleaded guilty at the Dandenong Magistrates’ Court in May to drug trafficking after cops found him unconscious in his car after a bender.
The court heard Rosier had started using meth during the Covid lockdowns while engaging in “unsafe group sex”, where the drug was “passed around as an arousal benefit”.
Rosier went on to be nabbed by cops four times for different types of drug offending, beginning on October 8 in 2022, when he crashed into a parked car in Dandenong North.
Rosier told police he was “eating lollies” when he lost control of his Mercedes Benz, causing extensive damage to his own car and the victim’s parked vehicle.
Despite claiming the last time he had used drugs was a week prior, an oral fluid test showed he was high on meth.
Rosier and an unknown passenger were busted on October 27 in 2022, parked on the side of the Calder Freeway in Gisborne.
Police found multiple zip-lock bags containing meth, weed and another unknown white and powdery substance, alongside a syringe in the console of Rosier’s car.
He told police he’d “bought the drugs but never taken them”.
In another police search on January 13, Rosier was caught with more narcotics and a pack of Viagra, as well as $810 in cash.
Police confiscated two phones found in his car, finding conversations between Rosier and another man, indicating a recent drug transaction.
The court heard police did a welfare check on Rosier on July 10 in 2023, where they found him passed out in his car in the carpark of a Doveton motel.
A search of his vehicle and the room he had booked for the night prior revealed various drug paraphernalia, a zip-lock bag of meth and a vial of GHB.
In court, Rosier’s lawyer said he had “fell into the wrong crowd” during a rough time throughout the Covid lockdowns, where he began living a “double life”, keeping his drug use a secret from his partner.
His alternate reality became exposed after he was arrested and put behind bars for 28 days in 2023.
Magistrate Jacinta Studham sentenced him to complete a 12-month community corrections order without conviction, saying his time in prison was “enough of a punitive punishment for a man with no prior convictions”.
SCOTT EDWARDS
A 75-year-old drug-running pensioner who admitted his role in a cross-country smuggling operation in return for $8000 has walked out of court a free man.
Scott Alexander Edwards, of Hayborough, south of Adelaide appeared for sentencing in the County Court in May after pleading guilty last month to one charge of trafficking in a drug of dependence, namely butanediol.
He was sentenced to 58 days in prison but Judge Patricia Riddell said since Edwards had spent that duration in custody, he would not need to serve any time in prison.
Edwards agreed to undertake a border trip for his nephew and alleged co-offender Kurt Opray from Adelaide to Melbourne on January 24, 2022.
He was carrying two steel drums containing 347kg of industrial solvent 1,4 butanediol that would have fetched the traffickers an estimated $1.6m.
Police intercepted Edwards in Horsham and a search of his home located a note which had been torn into pieces. Investigators reconstructed the note and it contained information which a co-accused gave him about the drug operation.
Edwards told police he was aware there were drugs in the barrel but not the precise quantity.
Mr Opray will go on trial in County Court this month on a charge of trafficking in a large commercial quantity of a drug of dependence.
Drug kingpin and boss of the powerful Notorious Crime family gang George Marrogi and his lover Antionetta Mannella organised the drug dealing and have fessed up to their roles in the offending.
Mr Opray allegedly organised for the drug’s transportation to Melbourne while Edwards was the lowest level player.
However, Judge Riddell said higher courts have long stated that those lower level players involved in the movement of drugs were crucial to the success of the overall scheme.
“Offending which involves the movement of drugs throughout communities is serious. That is reflected in the applicable maximum penalty of 15 years in jail for trafficking in a drug of dependence,’’ Judge Riddell said.
“You were aware that what you were doing was unlawful, you engaged in communication on an encrypted device with the purpose of hiding those conversations.
“You told police that money was tight for you. Your willingness to turn a blind eye to the contents in the truck and to facilitate the movement of a large quantity of drugs into Victoria must be seen as a serious offence.”
Judge Riddell said despite a lifetime of employment, Edwards has often found himself in debt due to poor business decisions. In the lead up to his offending, he said Edwards was experiencing financial stress.
Given Edwards’ age, declining health including Parkinson’s disease, a lack of relevant prior convictions and good prospects of rehabilitation, Judge Riddell said a community corrections order would not be suitable either.
RYLEE PARK
A wannabe Gisborne nurse with ties to outlaw bikies who was “part of a larger criminal enterprise” has been busted with $30,000 worth of GHB and meth strapped to her body and under the hood of her car.
Rylee Park was jailed for 10 months at Bendigo Magistrates’ Court in February for trafficking meth and GHB with a street value of $30,000 in Gisborne and Kerang.
When she was arrested at a petrol station in Kerang on December 2, 2023 police found the drugs strapped to her body and stashed in the bonnet of the black Mitsubishi Eclipse she was driving.
Police also found in a cream purse a “crack pipe”, drug scales, deal bags, measuring implements, and $1142 in suspected to be the proceeds of crime.
When police raided her Gisborne home the next day they seized a taser and imitation firearm that “looks very real” and if it was “pointed at someone they wouldn’t know it was fake”.
Police also found “tick sheets” showing she had made about $19,500 from drug sales.
Park’s lawyer said the drug dealer was “engaged in drug trafficking activity” as the “middleman” as part of a “larger criminal enterprise” to support her own drug addictions.
When she was arrested, Park told police the drugs were for personal use, before later admitting to the trafficking.
Magistrate Sharon McRae said “there is no doubt she is participating in a fairly organised … trafficking set up”.
“It’s strapped to her body, she absolutely knows what is going on,” Ms McRae said.
The court heard Park’s life “spiralled out of control” after a home invasion in 2022 where she and her then husband were threatened with guns.
She then “dabbled in drugs as a coping mechanism” before her marriage fell apart, and attempted suicide by drug overdose in July 2022.
Park got tangled up in the drug trade after moving in with her cousin, who “introduced her to drug dealing”, her lawyer said.
The court heard her cousin had since been arrested and remanded in custody on drug dealing charges.
Park had served 88 days in custody where she had time to “reflect on her life”.
Parks’ lawyer said the drug dealer had previously trained as a personal trainer and was studying to become a nurse before falling on the wrong side of the law.
“In the background of your nursing training, this seems at odds in what you were interested in before you got caught up in drugs,” Ms McRae said.
The court heard Park was sentenced to a community corrections without conviction order for trafficking meth and GHB by Ms McRae in 2021.
“I’m really disappointed … at that time I gave you every opportunity. Normally drug traffickers go to jail,” she said.
“On that occasion I didn’t send you to jail because I was pretty sure that you were going to be able to pull things together.”
Ms McRae said drug trafficking had an “absolutely shocking” impact on the community.
“Whole parts of the community are devastated forever, because their child, or family member or friend has died either from drugs or some complication from drug taking,” she said.
“If you want to take drugs and wreck your life that’s your choice and you can do that. But when you’re trafficking drugs you’re wrecking everyone elses life you come in contact with.”
Park was convicted and sentenced to 10 months in prison, with 88 days reckoned as time served.
Ms McRae said if Park hadn’t pleaded guilty, she would have been jailed for 14 months.
BRANDON ROBINSON
A man on parole for “violent offending” in regional Victoria was busted supplying drugs to an underage girl he was in an “intimate relationship” with in Bendigo.
Brandon Robinson, 26, fronted Bendigo Magistrates’ Court on Friday pleading guilty in December to a raft of drug supply offences and breaching his parole.
The court heard there were 305 pages of text messages and photos referring to the trafficking cannabis, MDMA, meth in the Bendigo area between August and October, 2022 - referring to the drugs as “chicken and strips”, the court heard.
The court heard Robinson supplied drugs including cannabis and meth to the 15-year-old girl on multiple occasions.
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The prosecution said Robinson was in an “intimate relationship” with the 15-year-old and the supply of drugs to someone so young was a crime of “an exploitative nature” for “profit” and a “sexual” objective.
Police raided Robinson’s home and seized a phone, electronics, cash, methylamphetamine, cannabis and multiple credit cards.
Robinson claimed to police he was “unaware” the teenager was 15 until about three weeks before he was arrested.
The court heard Robinson was on parole at the time for “violent offending”.
Robinson started trafficking drugs and met the teen in central Victoria shortly after being released on parole, the court heard.
His legal aid lawyer Briana Proud told the court Robinson was selling drugs because he “had no life skills”.
He had a very challenging childhood, in and out of foster and residential care and was homeless between the age of 11 and 13, the court heard.
Despite agree facts tendered to the court of an “intimate relationship” between Robinson and the teen, his lawyer claimed there was no evidence of any sexual activity, and he was not charged with any child sexual abuse offences before the court.
Robinson was jailed for six months.
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