By Erin Pearson
A Melbourne barrister is facing a significant amount of time behind bars for allegedly trafficking a commercial quantity of illicit drugs.
Anthony Grant, 44, faced Melbourne Magistrates’ Court this week via video link from custody, dressed in prison greens. He is being held at the Melbourne Remand Centre.
Melbourne barrister Anthony Grant has been charged with drug trafficking.Credit: Darrian Traynor
Court records show Grant is facing 13 charges, including trafficking a commercial quantity of 1,4-Butanediol and possessing other drugs, including methamphetamine, cocaine and ecstasy.
Grant is also charged with possessing a schedule 4 poison known as sildenafil, which is used to treat erectile dysfunction. Police allege the 44-year-old also trafficked ketamine. He was arrested and charged on August 8, the date to which all the charges relate.
Among the other charges, Grant is also accused of receiving a stolen debit card and possessing another person’s identification information with the intention of committing or facilitating the commission of an indictable offence.
Police say that on the day of his arrest, Grant also refused a police direction to comply with a request about computer data storage.
He has been charged by an officer from the Prahran divisional response unit, which investigates high-volume crime.
A bail application and the magistrate’s decision were heard in closed court.
Grant’s lawyer tried to have the charges against his client kept from the public, but after The Age objected, magistrate Rose Falla allowed the information to be released.
Seated in the courtroom during the hearing were members of the Bar Council, who were permitted to remain in the court when it was closed to the public.
Grant has been accused of trafficking the drug 1,4-Butanediol.Credit: Australian Federal Police
They told the magistrate they had an interest in the case.
On Tuesday, Falla remanded Grant in custody to reappear in court in November on the criminal charges, where further details of the allegations against him are expected to be aired.
Sometimes used as a party drug, 1,4-Butanediol is legitimately used as a cleaning agent but when it is ingested by users, their livers turn it into GHB.
Often sold in fish-shaped soy sauce bottles, the liquid has been linked to dozens of overdoses in nightclubs and at music festivals around Melbourne.
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