Jessica Dodenciu, Tyson May, Brandon Knight: Victoria’s young meth, cocaine dealers named
They are Victoria’s quick-cash under 30s who have corrupted our streets. Now some of the state’s youngest drug dealers can be revealed.
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For decades, drugs dealers have been corrupting the streets of Melbourne and regional Victoria with each year bringing a new generation of suppliers turning to the illicit trade.
Many are young, aged 30 and under, and are trying their luck at making money fast.
While Crime Statistics data showed a spike in drug offences in 2020, with 39,319 recorded before that figure dropped to 32,860 in 2021, authorities say Victoria leads the country in terms of drug consumption.
According to the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, Victoria had the highest average capital city consumption and second highest regional consumption of heroin in 2021 and the highest average regional consumption of oxycodone when compared to the rest of Australia.
Victoria also had the highest average regional and capital city use of ketamine when compared to any other state.
Hotspot local government areas across Victoria for drug dealers include Brimbank, Frankston, Latrobe, Melbourne, Mildura, Wangaratta, Wellington and Yarra.
All of these local government areas recorded more than 100 drug dealing offences per 100,000 people in the year ending September 2021, according to the Victorian Crime Statistics.
Professor Peter Higgs from La Trobe University says studies have shown dealers get a kick out of breaking the law.
“From my experience in working with people who use drugs there are a range of different reasons why they use – the most common reason of which is because it is fun … they enjoy it and their friends are doing it — and it is worth remembering that most people who use don’t ever actually have a problem with their use,” he said.
“They can do it and leave ‘normal’ productive lives – and no-one really seems to care too much.
“We know more people use legal drugs more than they do illegal ones – and over one in three people who are seeking treatment for drug use state that alcohol is the ‘primary’ drug of concern.”
We look at the drug dealers who have been convicted in the last 12 months, all who are under the age of 30.
Victoria’s youngest convicted drug dealers in the last year
Melbourne
Jessica Dodenciu
Award-winning former star property manager Jessica Dodenciu avoided jail for dealing drugs in December.
Dodenciu, 29, was sentenced in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court after pleading guilty to 40 charges including drug trafficking.
Dodenciu was busted in South Yarra in a car with a swag of drugs, including valium, GHB and cocaine, on October 11 2018.
Dodenciu was bailed again only to be caught again in St Kilda West in May 2020 when she was caught with meth and a weapon.
She was busted again at St Kilda in June 2020.
Magistrate John Bentley spared Dodenciu a conviction but handed her the order with strict conditions including regular drug testing.
Liam Downes
A Yarra Ranges dealer claimed Chinese gangsters forced him to sling drugs after he was nabbed trafficking at his grandparents’ Kalorama home.
Liam Downes, 25, was busted with a stack of MDMA, cocaine, meth and cannabis at his grandparents’ place.
He was sentenced in the County Court in May last year to time served – 238 days – after pleading guilty to trafficking a commercial quantity of MDMA.
Downes strung together lies which he told the police including that he was forced to sell drugs for the Triads. Despite the lies police charged Downes.
Investigators seized 529 grams of cannabis, 366 grams of cannabis oil, 140 grams of MDMA, 76 grams of meth, cocaine, ketamine, DMT, 49 grams of magic mushrooms and $1650. Most of the drugs were found stashed in a bag in the garden.
Brown was handed a good behaviour bond in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court after pleading guilty to drug possession in 2020.
Cassius Canfield
A drug-trafficking plumber avoided a jail stint after he was given a glowing reference from AFL premiership star Brandon Ellis.
Cassius Canfield, 30, was sentenced in the County Court in July last year to a three-year community correction order after pleading guilty to cultivating and trafficking cannabis.
Canfield was busted at his rented Keilor East home early on February 27 2020.
Investigators discovered a hydroponic set up with eight plants growing in the rear garage of the Wunnamurra Drive house.
Police also seized almost 3kg of harvested and loose cannabis, more than 60g of speed, some cocaine and heroin, deal bags, 11 mobile phones, computers and $12,650 cash.
Canfield must also serve 250 hours of community work and undertake drug treatment.
Mitchell Henwood
A Wollert man was assessed as a “high risk” of reoffending after he slung meth the day he was bailed for serious drug charges.
Mitchell Henwood, 29, was nabbed trafficking GHB after he was bailed for serious drug offences.
He was sentenced in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court in August last year to a minimum nine months’ jail after pleading guilty to trafficking meth and bute.
Henwood was pinched in Greensborough with more than 50gm of meth and $32,000 cash on September 15 2020.
Henwood was charged and bailed by police but went back to trafficking the very same day, Magistrate Mia Stylianou said.
Police caught up with Henwood again on October 1 when he was nabbed with more meth, $1650 cash and 222g of 1,4-butanediol – a chemical liquid widely sold as deadly party drug GHB.
Henwood, who pleaded guilty to eight charges including deal with the proceeds of crime, was jailed for a maximum 18 months.
Steven “Stavros” Pentaris
A Melbourne fitness coach nabbed with coke worth more than $50,000 was lashed in court for “spreading the scourge”.
Melbourne fitness coach Steven “Stavros” Pentaris, 30, was sentenced to an 18-month community correction order in August last year after pleading guilty to peddling cocaine after his business closed down due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Pentaris was nabbed after Prahran Divisional Response Unit members raided his apartment on September 25 last year.
Police seized 175g of cocaine — some divvied up in deal bags — hidden in a locked safe and other parts of the property.
Investigators also seized MDMA, $10,500 cash bundled in $100 notes, a money counter, scales, empty deal bags, a tick book, two mobile phones, an Yves Saint Laurent bumbag and a Louis Vuitton wallet stamped with Pentaris’s initials.
Pentaris was convicted and also ordered to perform 200 hours of unpaid community work.
David Jurd
A former Melbourne Uni biomed science student was done trafficking drugs after finding his mate dead in a Highett motel room.
David Jurd, 29, was sentenced in the County Court in March last year to a 12-month community correction order after pleading guilty to trafficking MDMA, cocaine and ice.
Jurd was nabbed with a stack of drugs in his BMW at the Best Western Buckingham International Motel Highett just after 7.30am on August 31, 2018.
Police then seized a combined 130g of pure meth, MDMA and cocaine and a range of steroids from his luxury vehicle.
Jurd, on parole at the time, told police he had taken the drugs from the motel room and wiped up a “bunch of lines” before phoning triple-0.
The St Bede’s College graduate and teacher’s son had been an “excellent” high school student, despite being bullied about his weight, the court was told.
Christopher Hourigan and Andrew Hourigan
Christopher Hourigan, 29, was sentenced in the County Court to time served – 30 days – after pleading guilty to trafficking butanediol 1,4.
Younger brother Andrew Hourigan, 23, who pleaded guilty to trafficking cocaine, also avoided further jail time after he was sentenced to time served – 22 days.
The younger Hourigan lobbed on the police radar first after he sold drugs to an undercover cop in October 2020.
Police targeted Hourigan junior after investigators established the Wesley College graduate was slinging cocaine via drug dealing website Leafedout.
Hourigan junior, under the Wickr alias Upthetren1, sold more than 155g of cocaine to undercover police between October 20 and January 25 this year.
Police raided Hourigan senior’s Mulberry Crescent drug cave in January 2021.
Investigators seized more than 2.3kg of bute, almost 70g of meth, 50g of cocaine, MDMA, ecstasy, various steroids, $3260 cash and more than 3kg of cannabis.
Hourigan senior was also handed a two-year community correction order while younger brother was handed a three-year order.
Shepparton
Tyson May
A former Shepparton teen BMX star was exposed as a drug dealer after he stole a gun then held it to a woman.
Tyson May, 25, was sentenced in the County Court in March to time served – 221 days – after pleading guilty to charges including trafficking ice, cannabis and GHB.
The court heard May pointed a stolen sawn off .22 calibre rifle at a woman’s head the day before police seized it from his home.
Investigators raided May’s Nagambie bungalow home on June 23 2020 and seized the rifle, .22 calibre bullets, meth, cannabis, a hunting bow and a range of stolen power tools.
May’s messages revealed him offering numerous customers “gear”, “juice” and “bud” for varying prices.
It was submitted May was raised in a supportive Shepparton family and was a keen BMX rider until 2016, who competed around Australia, while his father was the president of Shepparton’s BMX track.
Bendigo
Brandon Knight
A judge described this Bendigo drug dealer as “brutal and cowardly” for tracking down and shooting at his former partner when he was sentenced late in 2021.
Brandon Knight, 28, was sentenced to six years and nine months in jail after pleading guilty to a string of drug, weapon and violence charges in the Bendigo County Court last year.
A police raid on Knight’s house uncovered $50,000 worth of methamphetamine, $21,400 in cash illegal ammunition, mobile phones with messages about drug sales, and a gun in the foot well of his car.
Knight will be eligible for parole after serving three years and six months behind bars.
Mildura
Sofia Mammone
A convicted Mildura drug trafficker lasted just three weeks out of jail before being caught by police doing the same thing.
Sofia Mammone, 29, pleaded guilty to charges of trafficking and possessing methylamphetamine – just three weeks after she left custody last year.
Police intercepted a car leaving Mammone’s address, a small plastic zip lock bag with a thin red line containing methylamphetamine was found in the driver’s shirt pocket. The driver said she had got the drug from the lady in the house.
Mammone was sentenced to 37 days in prison, which included punishment for breaching her community corrections order.
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