Southeast shooters: Tooled-up toting druggies, dealers, thieves
There’s been a firearm frenzy of late with an alarming array of gun-loving, substance-abusing thugs coming before our courts.
South East
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A magistrate says he fears the “rampant gun culture” of the US is coming here, with the proliferation of pistols and sea of shooters a “scourge on society” we can well do without.
OWN GOAL
Promising soccer star Brandon Joseph Jansz was way, way offside when cops caught him speeding with a gun and drugs in his car in the middle of the night.
The Cardinia 20-year-old had the world at his feet having played for Melbourne Victory youth team and local clubs including Springvale, Langwarrin, South Melbourne and Mornington.
But the lure of the high life and making a quick buck caught him out.
The P-plater, who had been suspended from driving, was nabbed with a handgun, $2600 in cash, knuckledusters, a knife, cocaine and ice after he was pulled over in Dandenong.
When officers searched his house later that morning they found empty deal bags and remnants of cocaine.
His defence lawyer said he was a good soccer player who had lost his tradie job earlier this year and started to use drugs, and he had bought the gun to onsell for money to buy more coke.
She said he had no priors of any kind, was remorseful and the arrest was “a wake-up call” for him.
Jansz was placed on a court integrated support program.
HOLLYWOOD ‘HERO’
A racist wannabe gangster who threatened to kill an African man with a shiny silver handgun, hidden movie-style in his belt, shot himself in the foot after committing his crime right in front of CCTV cameras.
Frederick Cox shouted at a South Sudanese stranger “this is my country, get in your car and f*** off”, lifting his shirt to show he had a pistol in his pants and screamed he would “blow his head off”.
But the Frankston far-right fascist – who has a distinctive swastika tattoo on his chest – hadn’t realised his violent vile tirade was being filmed on a shop camera.
When cops came-a-calling for 45-year-old Cox they locked him up on 50 driving, drug and assault charges relating to a crime spree committed in suburbs including Cranbourne, Dandenong, Seaford and Devon Meadows.
He was repeatedly caught driving without a licence while trafficking in ice, GHB and cannabis, and was nabbed armed with more guns after being involved in a police pursuit.
Cox was sent down for 16 months.
F FOR FAIL
You would have thought a law student would have known strolling around a busy shopping strip dealing drugs with a gun and bullets in a backpack wouldn’t end well.
But that’s what Adam Pearce was doing when he was spotted by PSOs acting suspiciously in Frankston’s Station Street Mall and called over for a chat.
Officers discovered 4.3g of ice, an imitation gun, a folding knife, rounds of ammunition, deal bags, digital scales and caps and fittings that could be used for making a homemade firearm in his bag.
The 30-year-old had also been caught in Carrum Downs driving a stolen car with a handgun and hunting knife inside.
He had lost his part-time landscaping job, quit his studies, couldn’t afford the rent, became homeless and began taking drugs to cope with PTSD after being viciously bashed with a baseball bat while he slept in a friend’s home.
His defence lawyer said Pearce, who once had a promising career having worked at courts as a registrar before starting a law degree, lived in a drug haze and had possessed weapons to protect himself.
He was jailed for 56 days, classed as time served, and released on a community corrections order with drug and mental health treatment.
COUNTRY CROOK
Life in the big smoke sure wasn’t the stuff of idyllic dreams for this Bendigo bloke.
Rhys Lindsay Ermel fell in with “bad company”, took up drugs and rode around Melbourne streets armed with a shottie and ammo after making a city move to further his concreting career.
The 27-year-old wasn’t happy to be pulled over on a stolen bike in Carrum, resisting arrest before being subdued and handcuffed.
In his bag was an array of pills, cannabis, ice, a sawn-off shotgun, a phone “jammer”, 43 rounds of ammunition, stolen bank and ID cards and keys to a stolen Lexus.
His defence lawyer said Ermel, who had no priors, fell in with a crowd in Melbourne where the use of ice was “the norm” and his gun possession was due to the “bad company he was keeping” at the time.
He said his client, originally from Kennington near Bendigo, was now back in his country home and had “righted his life”.
Ermel was jailed for 16 days before being released onto a corrections order.
GANG LIFE
A Finks bikie walking the streets with a loaded gun while off his head on ice could have been a recipe for disaster.
But luckily for Damon Burriss – and the Frankston community – police found him before anything tragic happened.
The 30-year-old Cranbourne East dad, who proudly displays his ‘1 per cent’ status on Facebook, also dealt ice from his bedroom and was nabbed with stolen ID cards, ecstasy and weapons.
The unemployed tradie has a 31-page rap sheet and has spent the past five years committing serious drug, assault and weapons-related crimes since joining the Finks while in custody.
A court heard he joined the OMCG because of a need to “feel connected” after having a “broken childhood”.
Burriss was jailed for 12 months, minus 113 days he had already served in custody.
DODGY DEALER
It seems guns are drug currency in the crime-ridden underworld.
At least that’s what this junkie used to barter for more ice.
Emily Lee Bell was pulled over by cops on a routine patrol with a car full of substances and a very incriminating tablet.
Inside the Oakleigh South 28-year-old’s vehicle officers uncovered a device which detailed an offer to a fellow criminal to exchange two long-arm rifles for 2.5g of ice and $200.
They also found 10 gun cartridges, 251ml of GHB and 4.48g of ice in bags, boxes and bottles.
Only one of the guns has been located after being found in a Hampton Park garage.
Her lawyer said she had done the deal because she wanted the rifles out of her house after they were left there by her previous partner when he went into custody.
The magistrate said such weapons were a “scourge on society”.
“The community values its safety, we don’t want to be like the US with its rampant gun culture,” he said.
Bell was sentenced to eight months jail and a 12-month drug-treatment community corrections order.
