Named and shamed: Tassie’s North West Drug Criminals

Over the years the North West of Tasmania has gained a notorious association with drug use and drug crime with countless residents found carrying, using and dealing on our streets. CRIMINALS >>

• NAMED: Meth mums and dealing dads slapped with drug charges
• Name and shame: The Tassie drug dealers busted in 2020

The prevalence of drugs in North West Tasmanian communities has been demonstrated time and again through the Tasmanian court system.

Over the years the North West of Tasmania has gained a notorious association with drug use and drug crime, with countless Tasmanians being found guilty of carrying, using, and dealing large amounts of drugs in the streets of the north-west.

Here are some of the recent cases of Tasmanians who have been found guilty of major drug crimes in the region.

Dog sniffs out $200,000 worth of drugs

A Tasmanian man who turned to drugs after being a witness in a double murder trial was found with up to $226,000 worth of drugs taped to his body by a sniffer dog in the state’s north west.

In June 2019, Tasmania Police were conducting random drug screening duties at the Spirit of Tasmania terminal in Devonport when Brett Andrew Imlach set off a positive indication from a sniffer dog.

A sniffer dog was the key to detecting over $200,000 worth of drugs taped to the man.

Imlach was escorted to a nearby room where it was discovered he had taped a brown package inside the front of his pants.

It was discovered that in the large package were eight freezer bags of crystal methylamphetamine that each weighed around 1 ounce or 28 grams each.

It was found that depending on the quantity in which the drug was sold, it had the potential to be sold for between $48,000 and $226,000.

During the search of the defendant he produced his mobile phone in which Police found messages consistent with the sale of methylamphetamine in the days prior to the discovery.

It was heard that Imlach had a history of drug related offending and some of it was brought about by stress related to a double murder committed by a former associate in which Imlach gave evidence related to the trial.

Mr Imlach was heard to have 15 prior drug offences, including a 2017 offence where he was sentenced to 20 months prison for trafficking in cannabis and ice.

It was heard Imlach used methylamphetamine almost daily after his participation in the murder trial.

The Burnie Supreme Court heard that it was the defence position that another person had organised Imlach’s travel, and that he would hand them over in Hobart in return for half an ounce, or about 14 grams, of the drug.

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Estcourt said he accepted the defence’s position but that it was still a “serious case of trafficking” and that the use and trade in methylamphetamine “results in a lot of criminal activity, especially serious crimes of dishonesty and violence”.

In March this year, Justice Estcourt imposed a drug treatment order on Imlach and sentenced him to an 18 month prison term which he will serve if he fails to complete the drug treatment program.

North West mum of three sells up to $70,000 worth of ice to sub-dealers

In January 2020 Burnie woman Zoe Leanne Whiley had three stolen guns brought to a property she lived at which led police straight to her doorstep.

The police searched the home of the mother of three in search of the weapons and along with the firearms they found the drug addicted mother also had in her possession two snap lock bags of meth weighing 18 grams, the Supreme Court of Tasmania heard in October 2020.

One of the bags containing meth was found in a handbag at the property and the other was found stuffed down Ms Whiley’s bra.

A smaller bag containing meth, ice pipes and foil sticks was also found and Ms Whiley admitted to Tasmania Police she was a user of the drug and that she had purchased $3000 worth of ice on credit intending to sell enough to cover her costs and use the rest.

Ms Whiley also told police she had trafficked ice, not to make large sums of money, but to support her own habit.

Two months after the initial search, Ms Whiley was the passenger in a car that was stopped by police and further drugs were found.

Justice Robert Pearce said in court that the search of the car resulted in a snaplock bag containing 50.47 grams of meth and $3740 in cash.

He said Ms Whiley told police that for around six weeks following February 2020 she had sold ice to sub-dealers totalling between 80 and 110 grams, with an estimated turnover of between $50,000 and $70,000.

In regards to the original stolen firearms located at her home, Ms Whiley told police that two men whom she knew had brought the guns to the house and asked her to sell them. The stolen weapons were then passed onto a third man who was going to sell them for $500 each.

Her childhood was described by Justice Pearce as “disadvantaged” and one full of “family breakdown, neglect, violence and serious abuse”.

She claimed to have post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.

Ms Whiley had been in Risdon Prison at the time of her sentencing for a previous serious assault charge.

Ms Whiley was 38 at the time of her sentencing in October 2020 and had three children between 16 and 20 years old.

She pleaded guilty to trafficking in a controlled substance, possessing stolen firearms and unlawfully trafficking in firearms and was handed a sentence of two years and seven months with a non-parole period of half the total sentence.

Ms Whiley’s drug paraphernalia was also seized and forfeited to the state, with the penalty of $50,000, which was equivalent to her income from her crimes, waived on the assumption she would be unable to ever pay it back due to $25,000 worth of debt she already had owing to Centrelink, Housing Tasmania and for various other fines.

Young Burnie man caring for ill mother found with over $50,000 worth of cannabis growing in his shed

In March 2020, police executed a drug-related search warrant on the residence of Shaun William Thomas, where he lived with his parents.

Mr Thomas was 21 years old at the time when police found 13 individual cannabis plants inside three growing houses at the rear of the property.

The young man was found to be growing 13 marijuana plants at his parent’s property.

Police also found quantities of cannabis seeds, stalks and leaves throughout the house. In total police seized 3.49kg of cannabis.

Mr Thomas was taken to Burnie Police Station where he admitted the plants were his and that it was his first time growing cannabis and gained the knowledge for the operation from the internet.

It was estimated that the total street value of the cannabis seized from the property was $52,503.

It was heard in court that at the time Mr Thomas had been caring for his mother who had dementia and that the cannabis helped him with his issues sleeping brought about from a chronic lung disease.

Acting Justice Marshall told the court the young man had been very cooperative with police.

“He is remorseful and has good prospects of rehabilitation,’ Justice Marshall said.

“He considers the current court proceedings to be a wake up call.”

Thomas was sentenced to a 12 month jail term wholly suspended for 18 months on the condition that Mr Thomas not commit any offence punishable by imprisonment in the next 18 months.

Dealer with nickname ‘Ron’ found with ice in his underpants

Burnie dad Nigel John Griggs is a 60 year-old man who found himself in jail in March this year after setting up a drug dealing business where he sold everything from morphine to heroin across the northwest coast.

Griggs drug business came undone in 2018 when Tasmania Police commenced “Operation Austin” in a bid to nab the Burnie man.

Court

The operation involved tapping Griggs’ phone which proved he’d been selling an array of drugs- including ice, cannabis and ecstasy- over the course of several months in 2018.

Griggs was known by the nickname ‘Ron’ and that name along with his mobile phone number where found in the contact list of a number of people found in possession of drugs around that time.

In April 2018, police raided his Hillcrest home and found cannabis, digital scales, an ice pipe, a syringe, a bong- and a tick sheet detailing drug transactions totalling more than $19,000.

The following month, Griggs’ car was intercepted and police found 3.44g of ice in his underwear, $550 in his pocket and a packet of codeine-based painkillers.

The Crown said the value of drugs Griggs possessed fell between $13,700 and $14,750.

While sentencing in March, Supreme Court Judge Gregory Geason said while Griggs had offended over a short period of time, he had a list of priors for drug-related offences dating back as far as 1980.

Griggs, who pleaded guilty to trafficking in a controlled substance, was jailed for two years, with a non-parole period of 14 months.

Northern man sentenced to home detention accused of drug trafficking to fund own $3000/day addiction

A DRUG trafficker who has been on the straight and narrow since he was shot in the groin during a home invasion has been sentenced to 15 months home detention.

Damien Neil Smart, 45, pleaded guilty to trafficking MDMA, cannabis and ice and was sentenced in the Burnie Supreme Court in August 2020.

The prevalence of Ice has become a growing problem in the state’s north west.

The court heard members of Northern Drug Investigation Services raided Smart’s Kings Meadows unit in October 2019 and found large quantities of methamphetamine, cannabis and Diazepam in various locations around the home, including a 23 gram bag of ice down Smart’s underpants.

Three sets of digital scales were found on a table, two smoking devices were found in the laundry and a third smoking device was found.

His mobile phone was seized and there was direct evidence he had sold drugs to at least 47 customers over a two-week period. The drugs were valued at $7000.

Justice Robert Pearce said Smart had sold drugs to pay for his own $3000 a day a day ice habit and it was evident he was a known supplier in Launceston.

Smart’s life started spiralling out of control when his partner left him in 2017.

However it was heard that in March 2020 Smart became clean from drugs and turned his life around after being victim to a traumatic home invasion in which two heavily disguised men burst into his unit looking for drugs and money and Smart was shot in the groin.

It was heard in court that since the traumatic incident Smart had been clean from drugs and was living with his parents who were good influences and helped with his path to recovery.

For his home detention sentence, Smart was fitted with an electronic anklet and was required to be at his parents’ Norwood address at all times.