Uncle, nephew ran ‘one stop super shop’ drug racket out of Narre Warren South family home
An uncle and his nephew ran a self-described “one stop super shop” slinging meth, MDMA and Warner Bros. stamped yellow ecstasy tablets to the neighbourhood junkies direct from a Narre Warren South family home.
Outer East
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A gambling-addict uncle and his druggie nephew ran a “one-stop super shop” drug racket out of a Narre Warren South family home.
Frank LoSurdo, 50, and Dion Negrea, 23, were sentenced in the County Court last week after both pleaded guilty to drug trafficking.
The partners peddled ecstasy, meth and MDMA between December 31, 2018 and March 13, 2019.
Police were investigating Negrea for unrelated crimes when they stumbled onto the operation.
Investigators seized MDMA, meth and ecstasy stamped with the Warner Bros. logo early on March 13.
Negrea wasn’t home so police went to LoSurdo’s Narre Warren South home.
Police seized more than 70g of meth, MDMA, MDMA caps and 132 Warner Bros. ecstasy tablets concealed in a secret compartment inside a Pepsi bottle.
Investigators also seized a stolen Kawasaki motorbike, $15,500 cash, tick books, various stolen items, drug paraphernalia, scales, a firearm, knuckledusters and a baton.
LoSurdo told police the drugs found at his Addlington Ct home were not his.
He also claimed the cash belonged to his wife and some of the stolen items were a “gift”.
Negrea, who was arrested two hours after his uncle, claimed the drugs were his for “personal use”.
He told police he bought drugs in bulk and he used his uncle’s home for “storage”.
However, CCTV obtained from the property and encrypted messages discovered on LoSurdo’s phone were “indicative of organised drug trafficking”.
LoSurdo referred to his operation as a “one stop super shop” in a text message read to the court.
Judge Gregory Lyon said the racket’s “transaction rate was extensive” and LoSurdo was “truly running a business”.
“This cannot be characterised as simply low level, street-level or subsistence trafficking,” Judge Lyon said.
“It is apparent that you (LoSurdo) ran your operation like a storefront trafficking operation.
“You were a primary shopkeeper, you were front and centre for distribution of the drugs and dealing with the customers in your trafficking operation.
“I certainly regard this as more serious than the work of a couple of street-level dealers who trafficked just to feed their own addictions.”
The court heard LoSurdo was convicted of dealing meth and placed on a community correction order less than a month before his latest racket kicked off.
Judge Lyon said LoSurdo — a former-degenerate gambler who dropped $5000 a day — must “bear responsibility”.
LoSurdo — who had spent 280 days in custody — was jailed for a maximum two years with a non-parole period of 14 months.
Negrea, a dad, was placed on a 15-month CCO with drug treatment conditions.
The Hallam Secondary College drop out had spent 265 days on remand but that was not recognised as an official sentence.
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