Teens avoid jail after sniffer dog foils Falls Festival ecstasy plot

Two 18-year-old men who tried to smuggle ecstasy pills into the Marion Bay Falls Festival last year in a “not entirely amateurish” plan have avoided a stint in jail.

Two teenagers who planned to smuggle dozens of MDMA pills into the Marion Bay Falls Festival have avoided jail.

TWO teenagers who planned to smuggle dozens of MDMA pills into the Marion Bay Falls Festival, only to have their plot foiled by a police sniffer dog, have avoided a stint in jail.

In December last year, Chev Lee Deacon asked Jaxson Paul Foster if he would take almost 100 MDMA pills into the festival in return for $2 payment per pill.

The two 18-year-olds met at a Launceston Kmart carpark, with Deacon handing over the party drugs.

But as he entered the festival on December 29, Deacon was stopped by police for drug and alcohol screening.

A police drug detection dog indicated the presence of illicit substances on the teen, who handed over his mobile phone to police, which showed detailed evidence of the smuggling plans.

In sentencing last week, Acting Justice Brian Martin said the phone evidence illustrated the “amateurish nature” of the plans because Deacon had not taken any precautions to remove the messages.

However, he said, the crime was “not entirely amateurish”.

Deacon told police he was not making a profit from the drugs, and was simply bringing them into the festival for friends and personal use.

After the police interview, Deacon named Foster as the person he had enlisted to smuggle the drugs in.

About half an hour later, police stopped Foster’s vehicle, in which they found a bottle of vodka with 99 MDMA pills inside vacuum-sealed plastic bags.

Foster told police he was not going to take any of the MDMA pills himself, adding he was not expecting to get “stitched up”.

In July this year, both youths appeared in the Launceston Magistrates Court and pleaded not guilty to trafficking charges.

But last month, they indicated they wished to change their pleas to guilty.

Deacon was convicted of trafficking, fined $1400 and given a suspended three-month jail term.

Acting Justice Martin accepted Foster was “just helping out a friend”.

The youth escaped conviction but was fined $2500.