NAMED: A list of the NT’s drug dealers
FROM an ex-model to a former soldier, these are some of the suburban drug dealers who plied their trade in streets and homes throughout Darwin before the law finally caught up. Find out who is on the list.
Police & Courts
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FROM an ex-model to a former soldier, these are some of the suburban drug dealers who plied their trade in streets and homes throughout Darwin before the law finally caught up.
Asher Ruth DeRouffignac: Former bikini model avoids jail
FORMER bikini model Asher Ruth DeRouffignac was handed a suspended sentence in May 2018 after pleading guilty in the Supreme Court to supplying methamphetamine.
The court heard DeRouffignac was caught up in a police sting which targeted another drug dealer the previous year and admitted to onselling ice for him.
On August 17, DeRouffignac was seen talking to the driver of a car in Malak when she was approached by detectives. She was then seen hiding a clip-seal bag of ice down the front of her shorts and was told she would be searched.
While waiting for a female officer to arrive to perform the search, DeRouffignac took the bag out of her shorts and placed it in her mouth.
She initially refused to spit the bag out but relented after a few minutes and later admitted to buying 17.5g of meth and onselling the drugs for the main target of the investigation.
In suspending DeRouffignac’s sentence, Chief Justice Michael Grant said despite several attempts at rehabilitation, “she has not been able to control her impulsiveness until recently” but had now “taken steps to change her ways”.
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Gabrielle Mary Parker: Woman sold morphine prescription to dealer at 1000 per cent mark-up
Gabrielle Mary Parker was sentenced to home detention in April last year after pleading guilty to selling her taxpayer-subsidised morphine tablets at a 1000 per cent mark-up, raking in almost $15,000.
The court heard Parker bought boxes of 112 MS Contin tablets from a Nightcliff pharmacy with a legally obtained prescription before onselling them to convicted drug dealer Michelle Henwood for $5600 a box.
The drug is subsidised under the taxpayer funded Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, meaning each box cost Parker just $5.30, resulting in a “mind boggling” $14,484.10 profit for 290 pills.
In suspending Parker’s six month sentence, Justice Graham Hiley detailed the medical history that led to her taking up to 400mg of morphine a day after being diagnosed with necrotising fasciitis in 2011.
Justice Hiley said Parker was hospitalised for about two years with the flesh eating disease and required 19 surgeries, leaving her in severe, chronic pain.
Then in 2014, Parker contracted melioidosis and technically died twice in hospital as a result and became dependent on morphine since at least 2015.
Justice Hiley said Parker’s “particular circumstances” including her “unfortunate and deteriorating medical condition” were the only thing keeping her out of jail.
Malcolm Thompson: Cops bust pot dealer after seeing him on phone behind the wheel
CONVICTED drug dealer Malcolm Thompson was busted with more than 100g of cannabis and thousands of dollars in cash after police pulled him over for talking on his mobile phone in August 2018.
Thompson, 52, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court in September last year to possessing a trafficable quantity of the drug and breaching bail after going “off the radar” for six months following the incident.
Crown prosecutor Collette Dixon told the court police first spotted Thompson with a mobile phone to his ear while driving a Ford Falcon on McMillans Rd in Marrara at about 3.30pm.
After pulling Thompson over, the officers’ suspicions were roused when they spotted an open stubby in the car and asked him if he had been drinking — to which he replied “yes”.
A search of his trouser and shirt pockets turned up a “large amount of cash” and police asked if he had any drugs in the car, which he denied.
But when the officers searched the car, a drug dog sniffed out 113.55g of cannabis inside a lunch box.
In jailing Thompson for eight months Chief Justice Michael Grant said despite his two prior convictions for supplying cannabis, the offending this time around was “at the lower end of the scale of seriousness”.
Tyrone Dallas Kerslake: ‘Low-level’ street dealer heading to prison
SUBURBAN drug dealer Tyrone Dallas Kerslake, who had his first taste of meth as a teenager after being bullied at school for being short and fat, was jailed for up to four years in September 2018.
The Supreme Court heard Kerslake’s now-defunct mechanical workshop was a front for his gig as a “low-level street dealer”.
Crown prosecutor Steve Ledek said a court-ordered report revealed for the first time why Kerslake had little to show for his drug dealing.
“There’s now a reason why there aren’t vast sums of cash … and that’s because of this gambling addiction,” he said.
Kerslake’s barrister, John Adams, said his client “has been saying to me it’s time he grew up”.
The workshop, where Kerslake also lived, was later put under surveillance and he was seen dealing an unknown quantity of drugs to more than 50 people over more than two months.
Mathew Meginess: Suspended sentence handed to drug dealer ‘manifestly inadequate’
BABY-FACED drug dealer Mathew Meginess who set himself up as a “one-stop shop” selling party drugs to mates was jailed for six months last January after an appeal court ruled his wholly suspended sentence was “manifestly inadequate”.
The judges — Justice Judith Jelly, Justice Jenny Blokland and Justice Peter Barr — found Meginess’ sentencing judge, Justice Graham Hiley, wrongly concluded there was “nothing to be gained” by sending him to prison.
Justice Hiley had found Meginess had “very good” prospects of rehabilitation and might be at risk of “falling into the company of new friends” in jail who might jeopardise his future prospects.
The panel of appeal judges said the fully suspended sentence “overlooked the prime importance” of sending a message to other would-be drug dealers in the community.
Rory Muir and Alicia Chopping: Drug dealing couple gave drugs to a child in exchange for doing household chores
A Tennant Creek couple was jailed in 2017 after they pleaded guilty to a string of drug supply charges, including selling drugs to two children.
Rory Muir and Alicia Chopping were arrested in Alice Springs on their way to meet a drug runner from South Australia who was carrying a pound of cannabis.
A raid on the then-couple’s home saw police seize a drug ledger and security camera footage from an elaborate home-surveillance system at their Wolseley St house, which showed them making more than 100 deals in the space of a week.
The presiding judge Justice Kelly told the offenders “as well as selling (one of the boys) cannabis on at least one occasion, the two of you employed the boy to do domestic work for you and paid him in drugs”.
Giussepe Romeo: Son of a notorious gangster jailed for his role in biggest cannabis racket in NT history
THE SON of a notorious Adelaide mafia boss Giuseppe Romeo was sentenced to nine years in prison early this year for his role in masterminding the biggest cannabit importation racket in Territory history.
The 65-year-old is the son of Bruno “The Fox” Romeo, who was renowned as one of Australia’s highest-ranking crime figures until his death in 2016.
He pleaded guilty in the Darwin Supreme Court last year to partnering with an Adelaide syndicate to traffic at least 300kg of cannabis into Darwin at a value of almost $2 million.
In arguing for Giuseppe Romeo to be jailed for the maximum of 14 years, Crown prosecutor David Morters SC noted he had prior convictions for drug dealing in SA — where he spent seven years in jail for heroin trafficking — and was also jailed in NSW for cultivating 200 cannabis plants in 1991.
Sean Michael Pitts: Disability pensioner sentenced to five years’ jail for his role in an interstate drug ring
DISABILITY pensioner Sean Michael Pitts, who was the Darwin connection for an interstate drug ring, was sentenced to five years in jail mid last year.
It comes after police were told about a shipping crate was flagged with police by freight workers in the northern suburbs of Adelaide which contained 21lb of cannabis.
South Australian police swapped out the drugs for two bags of potting mix and the details of the crate were sent to NT detectives who planted a surveillance device in the crate before Pitts collected it in Darwin with a rented U-Haul trailer.
Pitts was overheard making a phone call after opening the crate at his house, and telling an associate “it’s f*cking potting mix”.
Damien Paul Barbi: Convicted cocaine importer asked for his sentence to be shortened
DAMIEN Paul Barbi was jailed for up to six years, with a non-parole period of four years, two months and two weeks, last year after a sophisticated police sting found he had been importing Colombian cocaine into Darwin.
The 280g of cocaine Barbi imported had a street value of around $120,000.
Barbi appealed his sentence, with his lawyer Jon Tippett QC arguing that his his client should have his “manifestly excessive” jail sentence cut, largely because a similar sentence was handed out to a meth dealer in a landmark 2017 case involving more a more sophisticated supply network and a more than $300,000 worth of that drug.
The appeal was denied, with ruling Justices Kelly, Barr and Grant telling the court that Barbi had “conspired with international criminals to import cocaine from Colombia” and “harboured those criminals in his home.”
Jonathan James Hunt: Former Inpex worker jailed for selling MDMA, cocaine and ketamine to his fellow Inpex workers
FORMER Inpex subcontractor, Jonathan James Hunt, who sold drugs to a group of co-workers was banished from the Northern Territory for five years after serving a nine-month jail sentence.
Hunt was sentenced in the Darwin Supreme Court in 2018 to three years in prison after pleading guilty to selling MDMA, cocaine and ketamine to other Inpex workers.
The court heard Hunt had been buying the drugs for his personal use and to onsell to a group of “hardworking, hard-living” friends who all worked at Inpex.
The court heard that a police search on the English-born Hunt’s car uncovered a clipseal bag containing 0.15g of MDMA, white powder in a wallet on the passenger seat, another clipseal bag with four MDMA tablets and fragments weighing 8.5g, and a plastic bag containing a mixture of cocaine and ketamine weighing 5.58g.
Less than an hour later, police searched Hunt’s Bakewell home where they found a cryovac bag containing 96 MDMA tablets and partial pieces weighing 21.53g, a pink bowl containing a mixture of MDMA and ketamine weighing 0.97g and a quantity of cannabis seeds in his bedroom.
After ruling Hunt’s three-year sentence be suspended after nine months, Justice Southwood ordered him to leave the Northern Territory within two days of his release and not come back for five years.
Animal activists call for crackdown in serial dog killer’s wake
The discovery of an NT crocodile expert’s sickening Rural Area torture chamber has prompted animal welfare activists to demand a crackdown on those who exploit and abuse animals.
Sadistic zoologist took ‘sheer delight’ in sick abuse of dogs, but is ‘not a psychopath’, court hears
**WARNING DISTRESSING** A once respected Australian zoologist and crocodile expert’s defence barrister has told a court his client had been ‘afflicted by a condition since very early childhood’ and it was ‘not his fault that he had that’.