Country couple linked to outlaw bikies exposed in secret tapes of drug dealings between Melbourne and Echuca
Meet the Garners, the Bandidos-linked couple behind a plot to traffic huge amounts of ice between Melbourne and Echuca uncovered during a police probe into outlaw bikies. Now, the parents say they’ve changed their gangster ways.
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The country town wannabe versions of gangster couple Carl and Roberta Williams have been exposed in a sting to lay bare a network of criminals trafficking huge quantities of ice from Melbourne to the Victoria-New South Wales border.
Bikie-linked couple Jason and Brooke Garner used the guise of delivering a Mother’s Day gift and Easter eggs to courier drugs to their Echuca family home where they live with their three children.
Ex-Bandidos associate Garner and his wife used code words to order about $90,000 in methylamphetamine in less than four months.
But their plan came unstuck when they were caught in phone taps talking to their alleged supplier, who police say was Mongols bikie Stephen Milic from Shepparton.
A cattle prod, a laser pointer and extendible batons were later found at the Garner house during a raid by the anti-bikies Echo taskforce, along with cash and ecstasy.
Police then used the family’s own security cameras to prove the parents were dealing.
The heavily-tattooed Garners are childhood sweethearts.
Apart from a stint in Queensland, they are long-time residents of the border tow where Brooke Garner has worked in retail and Jason Garner runs a boxing gym.
But between taking kids to school and sport, they’ve lived a double life of crime.
The Herald Sun can reveal they also have social links to the Addison family of Echuca, headed up by Jason Addison who until recently was the national chief of the Bandidos MC and whose sons have publicised their outlaw gang associations.
The Herald Sun is not suggesting anyone in the Addison family was involved in the Garners’ drug trafficking.
Detectives were monitoring the couple’s phones and bank transactions between April and August 2017, before swooping in to search properties connected to them and Milic as well as a house in Evans Drive, Croydon, where they found a substance they believe was used to “cut” the ice.
In a tale of redemption, 33-year-old Jason Garner has gone public since his arrest to push for drug rehabilitation services in his hometown, saying he wants to teach youth not to follow in his footsteps.
He has battled with drug addiction since age 11, taking up ice as an adult, and the 36-year-old Brooke Garner has also used.
The couple’s defence teams told the County Court of Victoria this week the pair were now churchgoers who were dedicated to family and health.
They had the support of the local pastor, an assistant principal from the local school, their parents, and clients from their boxing gym.
Family photographs of the pair posing with motorbikes, luxury cars and flaunting wads of cash show that before their claimed attempts to turnaround their lives they displayed a very different public image.
Their lawyers said the couple had only become dealers to help feed Jason’s ice addiction and to stay afloat financially.
“They’re not driving around Echuca in Ferraris,” barrister Alex Patton said.
“They were living a modest lifestyle.
“This was not going to be the next big Underbelly of Echuca.”
He said most of the money had ended up back in Melbourne with people who were higher up the chain.
Jason Garner’s lawyer, Rahmin de Kretser, said his client was no longer associated with his former bikie club and was not linked to them during the trafficking plot.
“He woke up to himself,” Mr de Kretser said.
The lawyers are fighting to keep at least one of the parents out of jail, arguing their children would suffer without a mum and dad.
To that, prosecutor Amit Malik said: “Some of the trafficking occurred in the family home.
“Where was the concern for the children at that stage?”
In downplaying Brooke Garner’s involvement, her lawyer said she acted like an “office assistant” and was “caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place” as she tried to help her husband and keep her family together.
But prosecutors said the calls were made using Brooke’s phone, and telephone intercepts showed she made plans for purchasing and hiding the drugs.
Jason Garner pleaded guilty to four charges - trafficking methylamphetamine, possess MDMA, possess a prohibited weapon (laser pointer and two extendable batons), possess a controlled weapon (cattle prod) and possess cash suspected of being the proceeds of a crime.
Brooke Garner pleaded guilty to one charge of trafficking a drug of dependence.
Jason was taken into custody this week as he awaits sentencing.
Brooke was released on bail, but still faces the prospect of lengthy jail time when they return to be sentenced on February 5.
Milic has pleaded not guilty to 13 charges and committed for trial at the County Court.
He’s yet to stand trial.
Originally published as Country couple linked to outlaw bikies exposed in secret tapes of drug dealings between Melbourne and Echuca
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