Lisa Della Dee Best convicted of drug trafficking and possession in Cairns District Court
A 60-year-old woman was “emotionally manipulated” by her incarcerated son to play a key role in a prison drug smuggling operation, Cairns District Court heard.
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A 60-year-old woman convicted for her drug trafficking and possession was “emotionally manipulated” by her incarcerated son who was running a sophisticated drug smuggling operation behind bars, Cairns District Court heard on Tuesday.
Crown prosecutor Jodie Crane said Lisa Della Dee Best was assisting her son, Joshua Russell Best, in trafficking buprenorphine – known as suboxone or ‘bupe’ – into Lotus Glen Correctional Centre over eight months.
She was convicted of one count of trafficking drugs and one count of possessing drugs.
Joshua Best, 32, was sentenced by Judge Joshua Trevino KC earlier this month to five and a half years with an immediate parole edibility date.
Fellow prisoner Dylan Ryan Tuckwell-Cvek, 29, was sentenced by Judge Trevino on November 14 to five years in jail for his role in the trafficking with an immediate parole eligibility date.
The court heard that Ms Best, who lived on the Sunshine Coast, ran the books and bank accounts for the drug smuggling ring, and that she sourced the suboxone and forwarded it on to others employed by the gang to bring it into prison.
Police searched her home on September 24, 2021, and found 120 suboxone strips and a notebook with details of the operation.
She sourced 1118 suboxone strips on 19 known occasions over eight months, the court heard, making a modest profit with her son of $18,230.
Ms Best’s defence barrister Daniel Caruana told the court Ms Best had no previous drug-related convictions.
Judge Trevino remarked “if she slipped back into anything of that nature she would go straight to jail”.
Mr Caruana said her son put her under considerable pressure, told her he was being threatened, and that she had received a threatening call herself.
“He directed her, it certainly wasn’t her business, she was a critical cog, no doubt, in the trafficking business but not the mastermind, it was not her idea,” Mr Caruana said.
“She is a woman of advancing age with no drug history whatsoever … she was certainly manipulated by him,” he said.
He said Ms Best had been mistreated and lived with domestic violence all her life.
Sentencing her, Judge Trevino said she gave very significant assistance to her son in the enterprise.
“The drug was sourced from various suppliers, delivered to you, then repackaged and forwarded,” he said.
“Your son had a network of prisoners, family and friends working for him with seven prisoners engaged paid $3970 in an operation that involved what can only be described as an elaborate system of covert communication with codes and unconnected service diverted to numbers not authorised.
“You managed the financial aspect of the trafficking and monitored payments into the bank accounts but you acted under the direction of your son.
“Your profit was quite modest but it’s criminality not to be measured on how much money is made.”
He said Ms Best had a dated criminal history with four convictions “essentially of dishonestly” including stealing as a clerk, for which she received a six month prison sentence suspended for two years.
“As a mature woman you should know better than to get yourself mixed up your son’s stupidity and his brazen offending,” he said, adding her loyalty to her son explained her slide into criminality.
Judge Trevino noted she owned a cleaning business for 25 years, and had obtained substantial qualifications.
He said he accepted her motivation was not financial but rather a misguided desire to assist an emotionally manipulative son.
“It has to be borne in mind your son was the puppet master, he was the architect of this operation, not you, it was his business, not yours – unfortunately you were not able to resist tangling yourself up in your son’s offending.”
Judge Trevino said he considered an actual custodial sentence but her path toward rehabilitation would benefit from the incentive of a long parole period.
He handed down a head sentence of three years with an immediate parole release date.
Joshua Best was serving time for drug offending when he ran the trafficking operation.
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Originally published as Lisa Della Dee Best convicted of drug trafficking and possession in Cairns District Court
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