County Court Melbourne: Biggest drug dealers to go down in 2020
From a Neighbours actor trying to dodge Border Patrol to a pill-pressing dad, here’s some of last year’s biggest Melbourne drug dealers.
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From a Neighbours actor who tried to dodge Border Patrol to the dad pressing pills in the storeroom at his business’ factory, Leader has compiled some of Melbourne’s biggest drug dealers who went through the County Court last year.
DEALER DAD
An Aspendale dad was revealed as the ringleader of a drug gang which manufactured and peddled ecstasy via the dark web.
Paul Rodgerson, 41, fronted the County Court in November after pleading guilty to charges including trafficking a marketable quantity of MDMA.
Federal authorities latched onto Rodgerson, who ran drug gang ‘The Flying Kangaroo’ and his crew after discovering an advert on dark net site Dream Market.
Covert operative ‘Red Bandit’ purchased the gang’s signature Qantas logo stamped flying kangaroo ecstasy via Wickr, Dream Market and dark web site AlphaBay.
FBI evidence revealed 72 separate buyers — not including Red Bandit — purchased 3130 Flying Kangaroo tablets via AlphaBay using Bitcoin at a combined value of almost $32,000 USD.
Crony Robert Olczyk manufactured the ecstasy at a Moorabbin factory leased by Rodgerson, while the gang sought to purchase pill presses and had dealings with manufacturers in China.
Rodgerson will be sentenced in 2021.
PARTY BOY PAUL
A globetrotting party boy who imported GHB disguised as water via an international flight dodged immediate jail time.
Paul Singer, 28, was sentenced in the County Court in July to a 27-month suspended jail term after pleading guilty to importing a commercial quantity of GHB.
The Ascot Vale man was pinged by border security after he flew into Melbourne airport via Brunei following a European jaunt on July 24 last year.
Two bottles of liquid — labelled ‘Gedemineraliserd water’— in his luggage were found to contain GHB, with one having more than a kilo.
The court heard the RMIT IT graduate, whose family operate Williamstown’s famous Titanic Theatre Restaurant, enjoyed travelling to international music festivals and rave parties.
AUDACIOUS ACTOR
A Neighbours actor who imported and sold high-quality drugs under the alias ‘drkemist’ was jailed.
Aravinda Mathuran, 30, was sentenced in the County Court in July to 39 months’ jail – with 21 months wholly suspended – after pleading guilty to importing and trafficking drugs.
Mathuran was busted after Australian Border Force intercepted 15 parcels containing a combined weight of more than half a kilo of MDMA with a street value of $40,000.
The parcels, which also contained cocaine and ketamine, were mailed from the United Kingdom, Germany and France between September 2018 and February 2019.
Analysis of his phone revealed evidence of numerous MDMA, cocaine and LSD transactions stretching back to 2018.
The court heard Mathuran worked as an insurance broker before appearing in Australian television shows Neighbours, Wentworth, Wrong Girl and Romper Stomper and commercials for brands including Carlton Draught, Cbus, Sportsbet and Bupa.
MELBOURNE DRUG QUEEN
A Blackburn North woman who was busted peddling drugs following a covert investigation into a Breaking Bad-style meth syndicate was jailed.
Jessica Legg, 29, was sentenced in the County Court in September to eight months’ jail and a 24-month correction order after pleading guilty to multiple counts of drug trafficking.
Legg sold meth, GHB mirror drug ‘bute’ and valium to dozens of customers all over Melbourne between July 2017 and August 2018, making deals at her home and in various Bunnings, Woolworths and McDonalds carparks
The drug queen landed on the police radar after she sold meth to eastern suburbs tradie Danny Vassallo, who was under police surveillance for his role in a drug syndicate which conspired to produce a new, deadlier type of imitation meth.
Legg moved 235g of meth, 1.8L of bute and 48 Valium tablets while police had her under surveillance.
The court was told Legg had “always been a high-achiever” by raising money for cancer research for Monash Health and also held down a long-term role with Coca-Cola Amatil.
COKE AGENT
A real estate agent caught peddling cocaine via Craigslist with her reality TV schoolfriend avoided jail time.
Kristiana Karakostas, 27, was sentenced in the County Court in June to a three-year community correction order with 150 hours of unpaid community service after pleading guilty to trafficking cocaine.
Karakostas and former The Bachelor contestant Georgia Tripos were busted in March 2017 following a covert police operation which began after investigators discovered a coded ad for cocaine on online classifieds site Craigslist.
Karakostas sold an undercover cop a bag of cocaine for $350 at a carpark behind a Mount Waverley Shell service station on February 22.
When Karakostas was arrested at Woodards Mount Waverley office on March 15 she had more than six grams of cocaine, drug paraphernalia, tick notes and more than $3000 cash with her.
More than 20 grams of cocaine, digital scales and 250gm of ethylpentylone — a designer drug commonly sold as MDMA — was seized from her home.
Investigators determined Karakostas made 49 sales or “offers to sell” cocaine, and moved almost 70g of the drug between February 2 and March 10.
INSTAGRAM GLAMOUR GIRL
A Mount Martha glamour girl nabbed dealing GHB and meth after turning to drugs to break her social media obsession was jailed.
Madeline Scott, 23, was sentenced in the County Court in October to a minimum 18 months’ jail after pleading guilty to charges including trafficking a commercial quantity of drugs.
Police discovered 3kg of bute (GHB) in Gatorade bottles, meth, a large amount of cash, zip-lock bags, scales and a tick book in her car after she did U-turn without indicating in Langwarrin last year and police spotted an ice pipe popping out of her pink handbag.
Scott admitted selling the drugs in person or via the internet to fund her own addiction
“If I don’t sell it then I don’t have enough money to smoke it,” Scott told police.
The court was told during an earlier hearing that Scott turned to drugs after she went “cold turkey” from obsessively posting photos of herself on Instagram.
The Peninsula glamour girl had posted more than 20,000 photos on social media, the court heard.
Scott worked as a “paraplanner” at her family’s business Precise Advice Financial Services.
GUNNED DOWN GRAMMAR BOY
A former Ivanhoe Grammar boy nabbed with MDMA, cash and a pill press after he presented to a hospital with a mystery gunshot wound was jailed.
Henry Griffith, 23, was sentenced in the County Court on Monday to 12 months’ jail and a two-year corrections order after pleading guilty to trafficking MDMA, steroid possession and dealing with property believed to be the proceeds of crime.
Griffith turned up at Moorabbin Hospital with a gunshot wound in his hip for which he had little explanation on May 2, 2018.
Police then found more than 600g of MDMA, 22 vials of steroids, $29,050 in cash, a semi automatic pill press, empty capsules, zip-lock bags, knuckle dusters and handcuffs at his parents’ Doncaster home.
Griffith’s barrister said his client trafficked MDMA to support his “rampaging” drug habit and that the gunshot wound was “irrelevant”.
But Judge Michael Tinney said the defence submission was “impossible to accept”.
Judge Tinney also said Griffith was “greedy” and his crime was “obviously planned”., in this for profit.
“You have done it out of greed,” Judge Tinney said.
“You took a calculated risk and of course you lost … (you were) in this for profit”.
FAMILY AFFAIR
A gambling-addict uncle and his druggie nephew ran a “one-stop super shop” drug racket out of a Narre Warren South family home.
The partners peddled ecstasy, meth and MDMA between December 31, 2018 and March 13, 2019.
Police were investigating Negrea for unrelated crimes when they stumbled upon the drug dealing.
They seized more than 70g of meth, MDMA, MDMA caps and 132 Warner Bros. ecstasy tablets concealed in a secret compartment inside a Pepsi bottle at LoSurdo’s Narre Warren South home.
Investigators also seized a stolen Kawasaki motorbike, $15,500 cash, tick books, various stolen items, drug paraphernalia, scales, a firearm, knuckledusters and a baton.
The pair denied dealing but CCTV obtained from the property and encrypted messages discovered on LoSurdo’s phone were “indicative of organised drug trafficking”.
LoSurdo referred to his operation as a “one stop super shop” in a text message read to the court.
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