Ice trafficker Kylie Ann Durban sent to prison, ordered to pay $762,465 to state

A NSW woman busted by a police task force for her role in a major Tasmanian syndicate importing meth into Tasmania has gone to the slammer.

A NSW woman busted by a police task force for her role in a major syndicate importing meth into Tasmania has gone to the slammer.

Kylie Ann Durban pleaded guilty to trafficking in a controlled substance and appeared before Acting Justice David Porter on Friday.

The 49-year-old had been one of several couriers trafficking high volumes of methylamphetamine into Tasmania between February 22 and March 3 through a drug syndicate.

Acting Justice Porter said Durban and a second woman had brought ice into the state on the Spirit of Tasmania in her black Holden sedan on February 22.

Spirit of Tasmania supplied picture.

A third woman who is alleged to have been a senior operator in the syndicate flew in from Gold Coast the next day and the women headed to an apartment together.

Acting Justice Porter said a surveillance device recorded the trio discussing payment, with Durban agreeing to a $20,000 cut.

The court heard they discussed plans to move 2kg of ice in five days worth nearly $2m.

The court heard the third woman would send drivers to and from the apartment up until March 3 when Durban and the second woman were bringing drugs and cash to the mainland.

“About 5pm they were intercepted at Deloraine in the Holden sedan,” Acting Justice Porter said.

An initial search uncovered nearly $400,000 in cash, with a later search recovering three packages of ice weighing about 1.3kg.

“In a spare tyre, eight further cryovac bags of cash were found with an apparent total of $358,000,” Acting Justice Porter said.

In total $762,465 was seized.

Supreme Court of Tasmania, Hobart. Picture: Richard Jupe, NCA NewsWire.

Sales from the meth recovered could have generated anywhere between $417,021 and

$1,297,400.

The court heard Durban was homeless at 12, later becoming employed as a youth crisis worker, but she faced financial hardship when she took some months off to support her unwell son.

She used meth to cope and was evicted in November last year.

“People who set out to make money from commercial dealings should expect to go to prison for long periods,” Acting Justice Porter said.

He sentenced Durban to two years and 10 months behind bars backdated to March 3, with half of the sentence non-parole.

The Acting Justice ordered Durban to pay $762,465 to the state, being the amount police seized, and fined her $1,969.