From a 70-year-old ex-prison guard with financial woes, to a former stripper nabbed with ice and cocaine in her bra, the Mercury has followed the cases of a number of Tasmanian drug offenders over the past year. Here are some of the most shocking cases.
Sniffer dog foils teenage plans to traffic E at Falls
After meeting up at Kmart to do the deal, two teenage boys set about to traffic dozens of ecstasy pills at the Marion Bay Falls Festival.
But their plans were foiled by a police sniffer dog at the festival’s entry and screening point.
Chev Lee Deacon handed over his phone to police, which showed details of the “not entirely amateurish” plan, later dobbing in his mate Jaxson Paul Foster.
When police stopped Foster’s vehicle, they found a bottle of vodka with 99 MDMA pills inside vacuum-sealed plastic bags.
Both 18-year-olds pleaded guilty to trafficking charges.
They avoided stints in jail and Foster managed to avoid a conviction because he was “just helping out a friend” – but both received hefty fines.
Undercover cop dressed as postman stings MDMA pair
An undercover police officer disguised as a postman delivered a package that two West Tamar men thought was a kilo of MDMA they had shipped from Spain.
Toby John Della Valle, 29, and Shea Alex Gibbling, 35, had been anxious about when the package would arrive – with Della Valle repeatedly calling Australia Post the day before.
Little did they know that Australian Border Force officials had already removed the narcotics before the “postman” arrived.
The cops returned soon after to raid their property, finding drugs stashed in their bedroom and roof cavity.
A jury found the pair guilty of importing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug, and trafficking marketable quantities.
Ice dealer pinned cop between two cars
Repeat offender Brendan David Cranston had set up a business – selling the drug ice out of his car.
In October 2017, after he had done a drug deal in front of two kids in the back of his vehicle, police spotted his “mid-level, street-selling operation”.
An officer approached his car, but Cranston drove straight at him, pinning the policeman against his vehicle – continuing to accelerate despite the cop yelling at him to stop.
The officer was only released after his partner moved the police car.
The police officer suffered ongoing hip pain.
Cranston, who pleaded guilty to trafficking, assaulting a police officer, dealing with the proceeds of crime, evading police and related charges, got a stint in jail.
Woman made “stupid decisions” with Glenorchy post office parcel
A 29-year-old woman was grieving her father’s death and was down on her luck when she turned to illicit substances – and made some “stupid decisions” for cash.
Ellen Lucia Smitti went to the Glenorchy post office to pick up a package containing some 3200 ecstasy tablets – with a street value worth up to $162,000 – which she was then to pass along the supply chain.
But Australia Post workers discovered “irregularities” and seized the package, telling police, with officers replacing the goods with a substitute parcel.
Police then raided her home, finding the parcel and other drugs in her handbag and bedside drawer.
She pleaded guilty to a trafficking charge along with drug use and possession charges, copping a suspended prison sentence.
Septuagenarian ex-prison guard grew weed
You would think a retired prison guard in his 70s would have known better.
But Huon Valley man Karl Woisetschlager was struggling to make ends meet on his pension – and he owed a mate a large debt – so he grew and sold cannabis, with the seeds mailed from Europe.
He pleaded guilty to trafficking in cannabis between July 2018 and April last year, and to a charge of unlawfully importing cannabis seeds.
Chief Justice Alan Blow took into account Woisetschlager’s age and health, and slapped him with an eight-month suspended jail sentence.
Ex-stripper caught about to smuggle $150K of drugs in bra
Former stripper Alexandra Rose Kobelke lived in Sydney – but she’s now in a Tassie slammer for at least the next few months.
The 26-year-old trafficked large amounts of ice and cocaine to Tasmania from NSW over a 13-month period – taking hundreds of thousands of dollars back home.
She was finally nabbed in January last year at Sydney Airport, about to board a flight to Hobart, with $150,000 worth of drugs shoved down her bra.
Kobelke had been under surveillance for some time, with her luggage X-rayed and found to contain “large bundles of cash”.
She pleaded guilty to trafficking in a controlled substance, and was jailed for two years and eight months – backdated to March 2019 when she first went into custody – with a non-parole period of 16 months.
Woman sold drugs to fund $2000-a-week addiction
A 52-year-old Somerset woman had a serious problem – a drug addiction that cost her a whopping $2000 a week to feed.
Sex worker Rebecca Dyett had been addicted to opiates and heroin for 30 years – so she dealt in speed, ice, cannabis and heroin from her home to make enough money to pay for it.
Police raided her home and found a variety of illicit drugs, cash, scales and snap-lock bags in her bedroom and a safe.
She pleaded guilty to three counts of trafficking at Burnie’s Supreme Court and was jailed for a year.
Motorcyclist drug dealer drove at cop and broke his finger
A policeman on foot approached Huon Gendall at traffic lights after spotting the motorbike rider hooning through Hobart at 120km/h with fake plates.
The officer told Gendall to stop – but Gendall walked his bike backwards, revved, then drove straight at the officer.
The policeman held the front of Gendall’s bike for about 10 metres before both men crashed to the ground and Gendall tried to escape on foot.
The officer’s finger was broken during the incident.
About two months earlier, police had searched a South Hobart home where Gendall was living as well as a van, finding quantities of ice with a street value of more than $18,000, opioid tablets and 10 ice pipes.
He pleaded guilty to assaulting a constable and drug trafficking charges between October 2018 and July 2019, plus a number of related charges, receiving a five-month jail term and a $21,200 fine plus other costs.
No jail for lawyer's trafficker son with guns
A prominent Hobart barrister’s son copped an 18-month jail term after he was found guilty of trafficking ecstasy – but his stint behind bars was fully suspended.
Gardners Bay man Thomas Oliver Melick – who is the son of Hobart lawyer Greg Melick – was found guilty by a Hobart jury after fighting the allegations at trial.
An Express Post parcel had been intercepted at the Mornington Mail Centre in January 2016 with 501 ecstasy tablets and a small amount of cocaine.
The parcel had been addressed to Melick for delivery to a PO Box registered in his parents’ name.
Melick also pleaded guilty to possessing two double barrelled sawn-off shotguns and a prohibited semiautomatic rifle.
Woman stashed drugs in pine forest pipes
A “remorseful” Hobart woman was involved in a drug dealing operation using buried pipes in a pine forest as stash points for drugs and cash.
Police spotted ice dealer Shannon Myree Arnold, 32, at the forest near Seven Mile Beach in 2015.
Her lawyer Fabiano Cangelosi said Arnold was in a relationship with one of the two alleged “ringleaders” behind the operation, and that she’d been abused and taken advantage of by someone she thought loved her.
She pleaded guilty to trafficking methamphetamine, later receiving a 16-month suspended prison sentence.
However, she served three months behind bars after Chief Justice Alan Blow activated a previous suspended jail term.
Queens Head assailant nabbed with $10K of MDMA
Brett Corey Pickett is one of Tasmania’s most notorious criminals with 50 prior convictions under his belt for burglary, 63 for stealing and 17 for aggravated armed robbery.
In August 2018, the 41-year-old bought an airline ticket in a false name.
He was searched at Hobart Airport on his way back into the state, with police finding $10,000 worth of MDMA in ziplock bags underneath his clothing.
Pickett was on parole at the time for an armed robbery of the Queens Head Hotel during 2012.
He pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in MDMA, possessing methylamphetamine and possessing an airline ticket in a false name, receiving a year in jail.
No jail for budgie-smuggling ecstasy man
A young man was found with 19 ecstasy pills in his undies – and his mate was nabbed with 224 orange and blue tablets in his pocket when they were both sprung at Hobart Airport last year.
Blayne Alec King, 24, and Samuel Adrian Webb, 20, came to the attention of authorities when they tried to buy airline tickets with cash and were “acting suspiciously”.
They both pleaded guilty to trafficking in a controlled substance, copped suspended jail terms, and were ordered to perform unpaid community service work as punishment.
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