Heroin dealer Jenny Di Blasio busted during probe into unsolved Notting Hill murder
Homicide detectives investigating the unsolved 2017 murder of a Chinese accountant in Notting Hill have helped crush a major drug ring, with one woman part of the $300,000 scheme. Here’s how it happened.
South East
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AN investigation into the murder of an accountant resulted in a major drug bust, which this week saw a second heroin dealer sentenced.
Homicide detectives uncovered CCTV footage of the drug-dealing operation after scouring an Notting Hill apartment complex hours after Bo Wang was killed nearby on April 14, 2017.
Police said at the time they believed Mr Wang, a Chinese national, could have been the victim of mistaken identity.
The investigators seized film from a CCTV camera set up at the Blackburn Rd apartment of Jenny Di Blasio and Samneang Chamroeun.
They uncovered deleted video files which showed countless people coming to the balcony of the couple’s apartment to “exchange small items and then leave immediately”.
On March 9, five weeks before the murder, police had attended the apartment after the pair complained that two masked gunmen had stolen cash from them.
The day after the murder and the seizure of the CCTV footage, police returned to their apartment and seized more than $30,000 in cash, deal bags and scales.
Di Blasio and Chamroeun were released but arrested less than two weeks later at a Springvale South home.
This time they were caught with $1640 in cash and a diary which contained records of drug transactions.
The records show Di Blasio and Chamroeun handled more than 2kg of heroin and more than $300,000 cash.
Judge Michael O’Connell could not be satisfied Di Blasio’s (pictured) role in the heroin operation was “any greater” than Chamroeun’s.
The Crown alleged Di Blasio was the boss of the operation, but she told police she was a “small-time” dealer who trafficked heroin to support her own habit.
The prosecutor during Chamroeun’s 2018 plea hearing accepted he was “second in charge and not the lead organiser” and “Di Blasio was the principal operator of the business”.
Di Blasio, 31, was sentenced in the County Court on Tuesday this week after pleading guilty to trafficking a commercial quantity of heroin and dealing with the proceeds of crime. Judge Michael O’Connell said he could not be satisfied that Di Blasio’s role in the heroin operation was “any greater” than Chamroeun’s.
“The fact that your handwriting appears more frequently in the diary entries detailing the transactions might suggest you played a role more akin to an accountant or bookkeeper,” he said.
Judge O’Connell also highlighted Di Blasio’s efforts to kick her heroin habit while in rehabilitation.
Di Blasio was sentenced to time already served — 203 days — and a 12-month community corrections order.
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Chamroeun was sentenced on June 4 last year to a maximum three years and nine months in prison, with a non-parole period of 21 months.
He had already spent 388 days in custody at the time of his sentencing.
The investigation into Mr Wang’s murder continues.