Carnegie painter Luke Cintolo busted with large commercial quantity of deadly party drug
A Carnegie painter pulled over by police during a routine traffic stop in Melbourne’s southeast played dumb after he was busted with a huge quantity of a deadly party drug linked to overdoses, deaths and sexual assaults.
Inner South
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A Carnegie painter caught with almost 10kg of a killer party drug linked to rave deaths, overdoses and sexual assaults claimed he wasn’t a dealer.
Luke Cintolo, 40, pleaded guilty in the County Court to dealing a commercial quantity of 1,4 butanediol — an illegal substance which mirrors GHB.
Cintolo was busted after police intercepted him during a traffic stop at Highett just before 2pm on January 2 this year.
Police searched Cintolo’s Great Wall ute and seized 270g of “bute” and two tabs of MDMA Cintolo had earlier claimed the vehicle wasn’t his.
Investigators raided Cintolo’s Carnegie unit and seized more than 9kg of bute from two Refresh branded bottles hidden inside a suitcase.
Police also seized an extendible baton, measuring devices and 35ml containers.
Cintolo initially played down his racket telling police he was just a “drug user”.
“I’m weaning myself off mils (sic) of 1,4B,” he said.
“I’m on the arse end of an addiction and slowly, but surely, I’m … kinda beating it but it’s bit by bit.”
Cintolo told police the MDMA tabs were an energy hit “guarana-type thing” that “you buy from the bloody chemist”.
Cintolo denied any knowledge of the bottles which contained the bute despite the drugs located in a suitcase by his bed.
‘There’s people out there with keys to my apartment, I’m not the only one,” he said.
“I haven’t been in my apartment in three or four days … I didn’t put them there.
“I’m not trafficking … I’m not trafficking a commercial amount … I’m not a trafficker, for God’s sake … how ridiculous.”
Cintolo told police the baton was for security after he was the victim of an aggravated burglary.
The court heard Cintolo fell on hard times after the breakdown of a long-term relationship.
Cintolo’s mum gave evidence that her relationship with her son became strained due to his drug addiction but he was a different person after going into custody.
Cintolo also has a solid work history and was running his own painting business in the lead up to his arrest.
Judge Scott Johns remanded Cintolo for sentencing on September 23.
Bute — also known as Liquid Fantasy — can be imported for industrial purposes despite being linked to overdoses, drink-spiking and sexual assaults.
Acting Supt Craig Darlow of Victoria Police’s Organised Crime Division said bute was hugely dangerous.
It was commonly peddled in soy sauce fish bottles and especially popular because it was cheap.
“Offenders import the drug as an industrial product then sell it at enormous profit but also with enormous community harm,” Acting Supt Darlow said.
“The drug has become extremely popular among criminal syndicates because of the opportunity to buy it cheaply then traffic at a massive profit.”
“The drug can be unpredictable and because it works more slowly than the similar GHB, users are at risk of overdosing because they are likely to take a second or third dose,” Acting Supt Darlow said.
“The difference between survival and a fatal overdose can be very small.”
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