Tasmanian man avoids prison after mail-order meth operation stamped out in Supreme Court

A 26-year-old Tasmanian man whose home-based drug operation was uncovered following his failed attempt to import methylamphetamine through the mail was sentenced.

The court heard that police officers conducting odour examinations on mail at the Australian Post centre in Launceston uncovered a suspicious parcel.

A 26-year-old Tasmanian man whose home-based drug operation was uncovered following his failed attempt to import methylamphetamine through the mail has avoided a custodial prison sentence.

Bradley Philip McCall, faced the Supreme Court after pleading guilty to trafficking in a controlled substance between June 2021 and January 2022.

The court heard that police officers conducting odour examinations on mail at the Australian Post centre in Launceston uncovered a suspicious parcel, addressed to McCall.

After a police detection dog gave a positive indication to the package, it was opened by an Australian Post employee and found to contain four sealed bags containing a light-brown substance.

The parcel was taken to the Australian Border Force office, where a drug test confirmed the substance to be methylamphetamine.

Justice Tamara Jago told the court that the 59.67 grams of the drug found in the parcel was more than double the traffickable quantity.

“The following day, police arranged for the parcel to be delivered to you with a substitute drug inside,” Justice Jago said.

“Police conducted surveillance following the delivery and you were observed to retrieve the parcel from the letterbox and then enter your residence with it.

“Subsequently, a search warrant was executed. The parcel placed in the mailbox was found inside your property, open, with the substitute drug still present.”

During a subsequent search of McCall’s home, police seized three sets of digital scales, 15 clip seal bags containing quantities of MDMA, more than $1000 cash, and 230 Xanax tablets.

The estimated street value of the methylamphetamine located by police at the mail delivery centre was calculated at $15,000.

“Messages found on your mobile phone indicated you were involved in selling illicit drugs from June 2021 until at least December 2021,” Justice Jago told the defendant.

“Some of the messages were from people requesting to purchase drugs from you including discussions about prices.

“Other messages were requests from you for people to whom you had sold illicit drugs to label their bank transactions in a way which disguised the fact the payment was for illicit drugs.”

Justice Jago said she accepted McCall’s involvement in selling methylamphetamine purchased from the “dark web” stemmed from his own use of the substance, but that she was also satisfied he sold it to make money.

Taking into account the defendant’s early guilty plea, Justice Jago sentenced McCall to 14 months in jail, wholly suspended on the condition that he not commit another offence punishable by imprisonment for two years.

Justice Jago further ordered that the cash sum found at McCall home be forfeited to the State of Tasmania.