Gold Coast’s Bradley Kilgour jailed after trying to traffick drugs from Victoria

A former rugby coach from the Gold Coast told police he became involved in the Melbourne drug trade to help fund his truck business.

A former Queensland rugby coach told police he hoped the $2.6m of cannabis he was transporting from Melbourne could help fund his truck business, a court has heard.

Authorities uncovered more than 134kg in Bradley Kilgour’s truck in January this year when he was stopped in Keilor East after picking up the drugs from an alleged co-offender.

The 54-year-old father from Nerang on the Gold Coast was sentenced to a minimum of 14 months behind bars earlier this month after pleading guilty to one charge of trafficking a commercial quantity of a drug on dependence in the Melbourne County Court.

The court heard Kilgour drove his truck from Queensland to Melbourne where he met a co-offender, whose matters are still before the court, on Cemetery Rd in Keilor East.

Kilgour, a self-employed truck driver, travelled south in his truck carrying 18 plastic chemical storage tanks, including four which were empty.

On the morning when he was stopped by police, Kilgour was met by his co-offender who is alleged to have loaded eight cardboard boxes on to the truck from his nearby van and put them into the trailer of the truck.

Police arrived shortly after the co-offender departed the scene and Kilgour told police he had picked up boxes but didn’t know what was in them.

He provided the password to his phone, which meant police could break down encrypted messages exchanged between the parties in the lead-up to the drugs being uncovered.

In his police interview, Kilgour said he took a gamble on travelling to Victoria to help fund his truck business.

He also told police he first became involved in the drug trade when he was approached by two men at a service station on the Gold Coast.

More than $1600 in cash was also located on Kilgour during the police search.

Judge Marcus Dempsey said Kilgour led an “industrious and honourable life” before the offending.

Kilgour will spend a maximum of two years and eight months in prison.

He had served 269 days of pre-sentence detention.