Meth dealer jailed after he paid for drugs with stolen rifle

Despite selling drugs daily to a customer base of 35 people the dealer was regularly short of money, leading to the Crown’s conclusion that his business was hardly a profitable one.

FOR the past year Jack Robert Raymond waited in a cell to be sentenced for drug trafficking but yesterday he learned he would have to wait a little longer before his release.

The 23-year-old Goondiwindi man faced the Toowoomba Supreme Court today to plead guilty to one count each of drug trafficking and supplying a firearm.

Crown Prosecutor Alysha Ballantyne told the court Raymond ran a street-level operation, selling meth and cannabis to a customer base of 35 people in the Goondiwindi area.

The court heard Raymond sold the drugs from September 1, 2019 to his eventual arrest on December 10.

Raymond sold drugs daily, often on credit.

“The Crown accepts the (Raymond) was addicted to the drugs he sold, and that the business did not appear to be profitable as he often complained about having no money,” Ms Ballantyne said.

The court heard Raymond was arrested during an operation targeting his main supplier, with whom he exchanged a stolen rifle for methamphetamine.

“(The supplier) later sold that rifle to an undercover officer,” Ms Ballantyne said.

In handing down his judgment Justice Thomas Bradley noted Raymond’s potent drug addiction and his record of sobriety while serving pre-sentence custody.

He ordered a head sentence of three and half years in jail, suspended after one year for four years.

Justice Bradley noted Raymond still had 120 days to serve in jail before the suspension was activated, because he was dealing while on a parole for an earlier drug conviction.