Revealed: Tassie’s major busts, drug trafficking cases that finalised this year
Serious drug-related crime has plagued Tasmanian courts and prisons, with 280+ serious drug offenders caught in the state in the past year. NAMED: Tasmanians done for drug trafficking >>
Police & Courts
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Serious drug-related crime has plagued Tasmanian courts and prisons, with the education sector and police working to prevent the crimes.
More than 280 serious drug offenders were recorded in Tasmania in the last financial year.
Though this shows a downward trend from years prior, the issue of drug offending has been a priority area for police.
“Targeting serious drug offenders and traffickers remains an operational priority,” Southern Drug Investigation Services Inspector Adam Mollineaux said.
“Our primary concern is community safety which is why our investigators focus on serious offenders who sell, traffic or supply drugs to others.”
>> SCROLL TO READ BIGGEST DRUG TRAFFICKING CASES OF 2021
But high reoffending rates for criminals generally, including drug-related criminals, has prompted the need for a broader community approach to curb the problem.
Last year’s Report on Government Services found 47.1 per cent of inmates released during 2017-18 returned to prison within two years, and 56.6 per cent returned to corrective services. The Tasmanian figures were slightly above the national average, with the statistics covering all forms of crime.
Inspector Mollineaux said the preferred approach regarding smaller possession matters was to go through the Illicit Drug Diversion Initiative.
“This provides Tasmania Police with an alternate resolution to legal proceedings for minor drug offenders, with the benefit of a health-based intervention in some circumstances helping those struggling with addiction,” he said.
Inspector Mollineaux urged anyone with information of illicit drug sales, supply and trafficking to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
According to the Supreme Court annual report 2019-20, there were 56 criminal case lodgements for the major offence of trafficking in a controlled substance, compared with 73 lodgements the previous financial year.
The Magistrates Court Annual Report recorded 1162 drug offence lodgements in 2019-20, up from 946 the previous year.
Forty-six drug offence lodgements were made for youth offenders in 2019-20 and 37 youth drug crime matters finalised in the same period.
A Department of Education (DoE) spokeswoman said the Drug Education and Management in Schools Policy was in place to support child-oriented services.
The policy highlights support for drug education and strategies around incidents like confiscating alcohol or smoking products in early childhood intervention services, child and family centres and libraries.
The DoE spokeswoman said the approach focused on harm minimisation.
“In addition, the School Health Nurse Program (SHNP) works collaboratively with support teams in schools and with the Tasmanian Health Service operating to support health education, health promotion and individual student circumstances,” the spokeswoman said.
“The SHNP regularly utilises and shares resources from the Tasmanian Alcohol and Drug Service and the Drug Education Network with parents and students, and for staff development sessions in Tasmanian Government schools.
“Actions within schools include individual interventions, referrals to DoE social workers, psychologists or accessing external expertise such as Headspace, Pulse, Alcohol and Drug Services and appropriate NGOs.”
Therapeutic services were also a key priority for the Tasmanian Prison Service.
In2020/21ninety-seven people undertook and 60 people completed the EQUIPS program which helps high-risk people and offenders Explore, Question, Understand, Investigate, Practise and Succeed in areas of addiction, aggression and domestic abuse.
Harm minimisation and therapeutic approaches might assist in lowering crime beyond the scope of drug offences, with 33 per cent of police detainees in 2019 indicating drug use contributed to their offending.
Many cases involving major drug trafficking charges are going through court with the expectation of continuing into the new year, including an alleged $200,000 meth trafficking case, a pair co-accused of a major cannabis operation, and an interstate woman charged with bringing ice and cocaine into Tasmania.
Other cases that have finalised this year have resulted in hefty punishments and large quantities of drugs kept off the streets.
Read on for a list of the biggest drug trafficking cases of 2021.
TASMANIA POLICE NABS TRIO OF METH DEALERS
Three men who trafficked up to $1.3m of ice in Gagebrook and Glenorchy received lengthy jail sentences in early September.
David Hau Moeakiola, Alani Povalu Moeakiola and Ryan Edward Brown were sourcing the ice from a supplier known as “old mate”.
The trio was putting out meth ads on Snapchat and were conducting deals at a place they called “the shed” when they were caught by Tasmania Police in Operation Gold.
The Supreme Court of Tasmania heard on average 49 people visited “the shed” each day at the height of the trafficking operation.
The men sold some 80-100 ounces of ice over the offending period between August 2018 and June 2019.
They each pleaded guilty to trafficking in a controlled substance.
Brown was sentenced to four years and eight months behind bars, with a non-parole period of three years.
The two Moeakiola brothers were jailed for five years each, both receiving non-parole periods of three-and-a-half years.
DAD BUSTED WITH ICE AVOIDS JAIL
A father to six children who trafficked ice avoided jail when he was sentenced in June.
Patrick Simon Bailey had been caught by police driving away from a major transaction that he undertook at a Hobart hotel.
When police stopped his car in October 2018, they found an ounce of ice in his possession.
The 42-year-old had not been the target of the surveillance operation that nabbed him, and the Supreme Court of Tasmania heard Bailey had planned to consume most of the quantity of the drug in his possession.
But he had indicated he planned to sell some of it.
Bailey pleaded guilty to trafficking in methylamphetamine.
He was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in home detention.
MAN WHO SUPPLIED MURDERERS WITH SHOTGUN JAILED
Christopher Leigh Brown may have made headlines for supplying a firearm which later was used to kill a 19-year-old, but he was also nabbed at the time for trafficking cannabis.
The Mowbray man was sentenced in March to six years jail in total for the crimes of dealing in firearms without holding a licence, being an accessory after the fact to murder and trafficking in cannabis.
He pleaded guilty to the charges.
The Supreme Court of Tasmania heard Brown had conducted a cannabis selling business between January 1 and August 17, 2019.
“During that time, you sold cannabis to end users on a regular basis, in deal-sized quantities ranging in value between $50 and $90 per sale,” Justice Michael Brett said.
“You were selling at various locations, including from your home.
“From time to time, your children were staying there and would be present in the home when sales of cannabis took place.”
The court heard he had sold thousands of dollars worth of cannabis to eight customers, including to a 17-year-old boy who Brown was aware was onselling to other youths.
MAN JAILED FOR TRAFFICKING VIAGRA, METH, VALIUM AND MORE
A man in his early 30s went before the Supreme Court of Tasmania in August after he pleaded guilty to trafficking in a controlled substance, including a broad range of drugs.
Judd Paul Kraemers had also appeared for sentence over possessing ammunition when not the holder of the appropriate firearm licence and possessing a prohibited firearm, pleading guilty to the offences.
The man had been trafficking drugs between August and November 2019.
Police had intercepted his vehicle and recorded a positive oral fluid test for amphetamine.
When they searched his vehicle they found a black case containing 37 grams of methylamphetamine crystals, 135 perforated tabs of acid, 280 diazepam tablets and 23 Viagra pills.
A search of his home recovered 53.9 grams of cannabis and $3365 in cash.
The court heard Kraemers stood to earn a significant amount of money from the drugs in his possession, including $36,7000 worth of meth, $2700 worth of LSD, and $1400 worth of diazepam.
The man had suffered from drug addiction.
He was convicted and sentenced to 15 months jail, with 12 months suspended for three years and the sentence backdated June 25.
ICE COURIER MUM AVOIDS SLAMMER
A woman who brought $60,000 worth of meth into the state was handed down a suspended jail sentence at the Supreme Court of Tasmania in February.
Christine Joy Radford had lived with a drug addiction when she decided to fund her habit by trafficking in a controlled substance – a charge which she pleaded guilty to.
The offending dated back to 2016 but she was sentenced this year.
Acting Justice Shane Marshall said in court at the time Radford had been a vital link for bringing illicit substances into the state.
Police became interested in Radford after a package of 70 ice pipes bound for her Hobart address was intercepted.
The court heard she had suffered a difficult life, including being abandoned by her mother as a child, being abused by a former partner and having her home burned down after she had given information to police.
The woman quit drugs in 2018 when she found out she had fallen pregnant.
She was sentenced to two years jail, wholly suspended for two years.
MAN JAILED OVER ECSTASY TABLETS RAID
An ecstasy trafficker was sent to the slammer in February after police found about $90,000 worth of drugs in his possession.
Jacob Anthony Burdon, 30, had about 1815 tablets of the drugs MDA and MDMA taken off him during a police search of his car in March 2018.
The Supreme Court of Tasmania heard Burdon had a drug problem, with many of the drugs for his personal use, but the man was also delivering the drugs to others.
Burdon was a repeat offender, having come before the courts and being sent to jail in 2014 for trafficking Ritalin.
The man pleaded guilty to trafficking in a controlled drug, and minor offences of using cannabis and cocaine.
He was sentenced to 18 months behind bars with a nine-month non-parole period, backdated to December 2020.
Justice Michael Brett ordered Burdon to pay $6090 to cover the cost of the drug analysis.
ICE, MDMA, CANNABIS DEALER WHO LIVED WITH GRANDMA JAILED
Oscar Jyles Dyett’s suspended jail sentence was activated after he pleaded guilty to three counts of trafficking in controlled substances.
The man appeared in the Supreme Court of Tasmania in October for regularly selling cannabis, meth and MDMA between February and August 2019.
“This was a commercial profitmaking enterprise,” Justice Michael Brett told the court at the time.
Dyett was estimated to have sold some tens of thousands of dollars worth of drugs while living with his grandmother, who was oblivious to the drug deals on her doorstep.
The 25-year-old has relevant prior convictions, including selling a controlled plant in 2015 and trafficking controlled substances in May 2018.
“The conduct relevant to that case is similar, if not identical, to that which relates to count one on the indictment before me,” Justice Brett said.
“This was also a commercial operation.”
The judge for Dyett’s previous case issued a prison sentence of 15 months wholly suspended for two years.
Justice Brett acknowledged Dyett’s very difficult background, and activated the man’s suspended sentence.
He convicted the man of the three charges, activated his 15 month prison sentence and backdated it from October 2019.
He further imposed a prison term of two years and eight months imprisonment. He will not be eligible for parole until he serves half of that sentence.
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Everybody appearing at Hobart Magistrates Court, Monday, October 7
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