Jordan Pennaneach: River St, South Yarra drug den raided

A South Yarra drug dealer foiled after a customer led cops to his well-stocked drug den has learnt his fate.

Police found the drugs in Pennaneach’s River St, South Yarra apartment.

A bigtime South Yarra drug dealer, brought undone after one of his customers accidentally led police to his apartment, has been jailed.

Jordan Pennaneach, 26, was sentenced to a minimum of four and a half years’ jail before the County Court, having pleaded guilty to charges of trafficking MDMA and cocaine, possessing cannabis and negligently dealing with proceeds of crime.

Pennaneach was caught with more than 1.67kg of MDMA, 362g of cocaine, 530.1g and $35,360 cash when police raided his high rise apartment at 77 River St, South Yarra on May 6, 2020.

The court heard officers came across the drug den when they were carrying out an undercover sting on another drug dealer through the app Wickr.

The target told the undercover cops he needed to visit his supplier to get the drugs they were after.

Officers were following the target as he went to pick up the drugs when he led them to Pennaneach’s address.

After Pennaneach was arrested, the French national admitted to trafficking drugs and explained to police how his business model worked.

The court heard Pennaneach was a “storekeeper” for a much bigger fish, who paid Pennaneach to store drugs at his home and sell them for him.

Pennaneach said he had been doing the job for two to three months, and each week he would receive a bag of drugs from the supplier, which he would sell, then give the cash

— which was up to $70,000 — to the supplier.

He said he had been expecting to keep about $5000 of the $35,000 police found in a Nike shoebox in his bedroom.

At this plea hearing, the court heard Pennaneach had no criminal history but had accepted the arrangement offered by a man he met in a nightclub in order to cope financially after he lost his hospitality job due to the Covid lockdown.

His lawyer told the court that as an international student, who was studying at the Australian Pacific Institute, Pennaneach had struggled not being eligible for welfare payments.

The court heard Pennaneach had used drugs before and did use cannabis, but was not a drug addict like most drug dealers.

At the plea hearing, Judge Lacava said he accepted Pennaneach had a limited role in the drug operation.

“He’s not a kingpin or anything like that but nevertheless he plays an important role,” Judge Lacava said.

“Somebody’s got to front the shop.”

Judge Lacava said he was taking into account the benefit of Pennaneach’s early plea and his good prospects of rehabilitation in sentencing.

“I doubt you will offend again in this way,” Judge Lacava said.

The Judge said he was also taking into account that jail was harder for Pennaneach than it was for others, because he was in a foreign country and didn’t have visitors.

Pennaneach was sentenced to a maximum of seven years, having already served 403 days.