With long history of drug offending Sebastian Julien Daquin faces Cairns Supreme Court for trafficking meth into Cairns

The kingpin at the head of a meth dealing operation is looking down the barrel of a 12-year sentence after flooding the Cairns community with methamphetamine using Australia Post.

The kingpin at the head of a meth dealing operation is looking down the barrel of a 12-year sentence after flooding the Cairns community with methamphetamine using Australia Post.

Sebastian Julien Daquin, 44, pleaded guilty to five counts of unlawful trafficking in methamphetamine, possessing methamphetamine in excess of 200g, possessing cannabis, possessing heroin and of contravening an order seeking information from a digital device.

The court heard Daquin had formerly lived in Cairns and had moved to the Gold Coast to get away from former drug associates.

He had a significant criminal record including drug and burglary offences, prompting Justice James Henry to observe it was “rare when a year went by in the 2000s when he didn’t commit an offence”.

The court heard Daquin had three customers - “Mr Munro”, “Mr Ponsonby” and “Mr Barnes” - with whom he communicated on an encrypted messaging service “threema”.

A man described as his “runner”, Mr Marbotuwana-Withange, was the one predominantly captured on CCTV making drop offs at post offices.

Daquin opened two post office boxes on the Gold Coast to receive cash from his customers, the court heard.

Sebastien Julien Daquin took full advantage of Australia Post to flood Cairns with methamphetamine. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

Crown Prosecutor Aaron Dunkerton told the court Daquin opened two post office boxes on the Gold Coast to receive cash from his customers, using fake drivers licenses.

The known extent of his trafficking operation was based on encrypted messages from the phone of Matthew Daniel Munro.

Late last year Munro was sentenced to eight years imprisonment.

Daquin refused to give up his mobile password, but Munro did, which led to the Crown case based on those messages, which correlated to many of the parcels being sent and received. Parcels posted by Daquin’s runner had up to 500g of methamphetamine at a time, and tens of thousands of dollars were posted in payment.

“The defendant himself posted some of the parcels,” Mr Dunkerton told the court.

“Finally on 20 April 2021, a parcel was seized by police with 495g of methamphetamine and within it was the defendant’s fingerprint.”

The court heard the relationship between Daquin and Munro had started to sour, and at one stage Daquin texted “I did you a massive favour and you f*** it up I’m getting people to come … you have no idea who is coming for your family if you do the wrong thing”.

Mr Dunkerton told the court Daquin posed a significant risk to the Queensland community.

Defence counsel John Jacob told the court Daquin was a French national who had arrived in Australia with his family at the age of five.

The Cairns Supreme Court was told Daquin’s spiral into drug use began after he was sexually abused at a Catholic school in Year 8 or Year 9.

In Year 8 or 9 he was sexually abused at a Catholic school, which led to his running away and eventual addiction to both heroin and methamphetamine.

“The drugs, particularly heroin, helped numb him and stop remembering those events, and by his early 20s he was dependent on heroin and methamphetamine,” he told the court.

Daquin was contacted by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and had some counselling while in prison, he told the court.

“He remains reluctant and resistant to air these issues,” Mr Jacob said.

“It gives context to the recidivism in his criminal history, and there is some basis for the future after confronting his past.”

Justice James Henry observed that Daquin was “a well-entrenched recidivist criminal. He’s been that way for over a decade now.”

He reserved his verdict until at least Wednesday to allow for the defence team to present a further background report on Daquin.

Originally published as With long history of drug offending Sebastian Julien Daquin faces Cairns Supreme Court for trafficking meth into Cairns