Some of Tasmania’s biggest drug hauls revealed
Mules, addicts and those caught in an underbelly they couldn’t find a way out of – these are the figures behind some of the biggest ever drug hauls seen in Tasmania. DETAILS >>
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AN ongoing battle by Tasmanian police to take illicit drugs off the streets has ended in some massive seizures of drugs and cash in recent years.
The Mercury investigates some of the biggest drug hauls seized by police, the figures behind them and the punishments they received.
Ex-bikies caught in amphetamine importation ring
Two ex-Rebels bikies were sentenced in a Brisbane court in November 2015 over their involvement in a drug importation ring that led to what was then considered the biggest drug bust in Tasmanian history.
Jyden John Kirkpatrick was sentenced to 10 years behind bars while Tasmanian Jed Curtis Leggett received a four-year jail term after they pleaded guilty to drug importation charges.
The pair were arrested on the Gold Coast in July 2014 after raids across the country uncovered a drug syndicate run by the Rebels Motorcycle Club.
Authorities said it stood to make the gang a profit of almost $20m.
Two parcels containing methylamphetamines imported from the UK failed to make it to the Tasmanian address and were instead sent to Kirkpatrick, who arranged for two more packages to be sent to Leggett’s Gold Coast property.
But police intercepted the packages and the pair were arrested at the same time Rebels members in Tasmania were taken into custody in what was touted as the biggest drug bust ever in the state.
Leggett agreed to have the packages sent to his Gold Coast address as a favour to his friend.
“Underworld, Underbelly” lifestyle in major importation ring
Blackmans Bay man Nicholas Mark Stebbins was jailed for 12½ years for his role in a major drug importation syndicate.
Stebbins, a former associate of the Rebels motorcycle gang, funded drug buys for the $11m amphetamine, cocaine and ecstasy ring using the virtual currency Bitcoin.
In March 2015, Stebbins was sentenced for crimes committed between 2012 and 2014.
Stebbins sourced drugs from China in amounts up to 1.7kg at a time, which were then shipped by parcel post or courier to addresses including those of friends and associates.
The largest package contained 1.78kg of amphetamines, another had 1kg of MDMA, better known as ecstasy.
Stebbins sent $116,000 to his Chinese suppliers via Western Union and $146,000 via Bitcoin agent Cryptospend in 17 transactions.
When police raided his house, they found drugs, scales, computers and mobile phones as well as a tick sheet with $40,000 worth of credit outstanding from buyers.
In sentencing, Justice David Porter said Stebbins was drawn into dealing after running up drug debts and had been unable to extricate himself from the “underworld, Underbelly” lifestyle despite it being at odds with his upbringing and education.
In 2016, he failed in an appeal against the jail sentence.
$5m ice importation
Tasmanian man and Rebels associate Ryan Zmendak was jailed in 2017 for eight years after pleading guilty to importing $5m worth of ice from the UK.
He had pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in methylamphetamine and one count of conspiracy to commit the crime of trafficking.
Zmendak’s crimes were uncovered as part of a 2014 operation between the Australian Crime Commission, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, and Tasmania Police.
Mule’s $500,000 ice sting
An “amateurish” attempt to smuggle $500,000 worth of ice into Tasmania ended with a jail sentence for a drug-addicted Victorian woman.
Candice Lorraine Bos, of Berwick, was busted at Launceston Airport with the drugs strapped to her body in October 2014.
After pleading guilty to one count of trafficking a controlled substance, Bos wept as she was sentenced, with the judge describing her as having a “life overwhelmed by abuse of illicit drugs”.
When she arrived in Launceston, she was accompanied by a man and they were taken aside by police.
Justice Robert Pearce said Bos’s crime was linked to her addiction.
“Threatened by her supplier, she agreed to transport the drugs in return for extinguishment of the accumulated drug debt she had no other means to pay,” he said.
“Her role was to bring the drug through the airport and then immediately hand it over to her companion.
“It was an amateurish attempt and she was quickly apprehended.”
Bos was jailed for 14 months with a seven-month non-parole period.
Jail avoided over 1.1kg meth seizure
A man was caught with more than 1100g of methamphetamine and $94,000 in cash, but a judge accepted it was not him that intended to sell it.
In 2013, Christopher John Humphreys pleaded guilty to trafficking on the basis that he was keeping the drug on behalf of someone else in the knowledge they were going to sell it.
The judge accepted there was no evidence of Humphreys selling the drug and could not determine the potential value of the substance.
Humphreys was sentenced to 14 months in prison, but the term was wholly suspended.
Concealed on his body
A drug seizure of methylamphetamine with a potential street value of more than $600,000 was made at Launceston Airport in December 2010.
A man was searched about 9.45pm after disembarking from a flight from Sydney and packages of the drug were found concealed on his body.
Shane Joseph Street was charged with trafficking in a controlled substance.
In sentencing in July 2011, the judge said Street strapped nine packages of the drug ice to his body and stashed a 10th package in his clothing.
The total weight of the drugs was 798.4g.
The Supreme Court was told Street owed people money for drugs and a drug dealer made him an offer to clear his debts.
He accepted the offer but was busted at the airport.
Street was jailed for 14 months with a non-parole period of seven months.
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