Caroline Cassar: Kings Park mum accused of dealing meth, GHB

A middle-aged Kings Park couple have allegedly been running a high-stakes drug dealing business in Melbourne’s north west.

Caroline Cassar has been granted bail.

A Kings Park couple have allegedly been running a large-scale drug dealing business in Melbourne’s north west which police have been targeting for almost a year.

Caroline Cassar, 42, fronted Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday to apply for bail, facing charges including trafficking a commercial quantity of meth, trafficking GHB and possessing a prohibited weapon.

The court heard Cassar and her de facto partner Joseph Madafferi had allegedly been dealing hefty amounts of meth, ecstasy, heroin, cannabis and GHB throughout the Brimbank area for months.

Caroline Cassar is the mother of two children.

It was heard police had been investigating the pair since August and had monitored more than 24,000 phone calls and texts sent from their phones, alleging more than 700 of them were evidence that the couple were drug dealing.

Cassar and Madafferi allegedly regularly contacted each other to arrange for the other to do the drug deals when one of them was not at their Lisbon Court home.

Undercover cops targeted Madafferi in March and April, and allegedly managed to get him to sell them drugs on four occasions.

The police allegedly bought a total of 286.3g of GHB and 65.7g of pure meth for $13,150.

Investigators then swooped on the couple’s house on April 28 and arrested Cassar.

They allegedly found a taser, 29g meth, heroin, cannabis, GHB, ecstasy, codeine, other drugs and multiple phones.

Most of the items were allegedly found in Cassar and Madafferi’s bedroom, which was behind a locked door.

At the same time, Madafferi was arrested at Keilor Downs’ Green Gully Soccer Club

Madafferi allegedly had cash, ecstasy, 26g of meth, multiple iPhones and several bank cheques and receipts with him.

Police told the court the couple had been working together to run the meth business, and believed Cassar was personally responsible for trafficking about 269g of pure meth — more than five times the trafficable amount under the law — between February 9 and April 28.

The court heard Cassar was on a community corrections order during the alleged offending and police believed she had also dealt drugs from her mum’s house, which was her proposed bail address.

Cassar’s lawyer told the court his client’s mother was terminally ill and that Cassar had been helping care for her.

It was heard Cassar had two children not in her care, and was studying a beauty course while working casually at a hairdresser’s.

The lawyer said Cassar would be fighting the charges and risked spending too long in jail waiting for them to resolve.

Magistrate Burt said there were exceptional circumstances for why Cassar should be bailed, but that she had “real concerns” about the risk of releasing Cassar.

However, Ms Burt decided to do so with strict conditions, including that Cassar only use one phone, surrender her passport and comply with her corrections order.

Madafferi, who is in custody, will front the court later this month to apply for bail.