Ten years’ jail for Hobart woman who ran ice trafficking business plus prison for two associates

A Hobart ice trafficking trio has been jailed, it can finally be revealed, after millions of dollars of the drug was brought into Tasmania via Australia Post parcels and the Spirit of Tasmania.

Hobart trio Kellie Maree Rhodes, Joshua James Barda and Lisa Lyn Harwood has been jailed over an ice trafficking racket. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Joel Carrett

A Hobart woman has been jailed for a decade after running a multimillion-dollar ice trafficking racket via Australia Post and the Spirit of Tasmania, it can now be revealed.

Goodwood resident Kellie Maree Rhodes, also known as Kellie Maree Umgeher, was jailed back in August last year for trafficking methylamphetamine and generating an income of potentially $2.5 million.

However, a court-imposed suppression order was placed on Rhodes’ case until her two main associates, Joshua James Barda and Lisa Lyn Harwood were also dealt with – and which has now occurred.

While sentencing Rhodes, Justice Stephen Estcourt said she was found guilty by a jury of trafficking between June and July 2020, and pleaded guilty to a second count of trafficking in 2021, while she was on bail for the first charge.

Rhodes also pleaded guilty to a number of more minor drugs and guns charges, after police raided her home and found two firearms, including a Mossberg bolt action repeating sawn-off shotgun.

Justice Estcourt said he was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that while other people were involved in Rhodes’ drug trafficking business, it was her business and it was controlled by her, or at least she was the senior partner in the enterprise.

He said she engaged a person to travel to Melbourne to collect the drug ice from her drug supplier, and send it back to her in Hobart via Australia Post.

Kellie Maree Rhodes, 40, ran a multimillion-dollar drug trafficking enterprise into Tasmania. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Penny Stephens

Rhodes also engaged a person to travel to Melbourne and back via the Spirit of Tasmania to import ice into the state.

She also sold ice from her home at Goodwood, which she “operated as a retail front” for her customers.

Justice Estcourt said even though Rhodes’ drug business only operated for a relatively short time of 15 weeks, its scale was significant and “aimed at the generation of large profits”, with ice purchased wholesale and sold on to a significant number of retail customers.

He said the Crown was unable to accurately quantify the exact amount of ice sold or the income generated, but it could be within the vicinity of $2.5m.

Rhodes has been ordered to forfeit tens of thousands of dollars worth of cash and property to the state, including a $51,000 Mercedes Benz, more than $29,000 in cash, plus a penalty of $34,550.

Justice Estcourt noted that Rhodes, 40, started offending after leaving a relationship marred by domestic violence, developing an ice addiction and leading a double life as she continued to raise her family while associating with drug users.

He said she described being dragged further and further into drug culture, “meeting people of the worst kind” until she built up a drug debt and started selling ice to meet these debts.

Rhodes was jailed for 10 years, dating back to when she was taken into custody in July 2022, with a non-parole period of five years.

Barda, now 29, was found guilty by a jury of trafficking in December 2023 after assisting Rhodes in “miscellaneous ways” over 19 days, helping with the drug importation.

In March, Chief Justice Alan Blow jailed him for five-and-a-half years, with a non-parole period of two years and nine months.

Last week, Chief Justice Blow also sentenced Harwood, now 36 and also of Goodwood, after she pleaded guilty to trafficking, helping Rhodes over a three-month period.

Harwood, who was already serving jail time on another trafficking charge also related to the Rhodes business, was given two years jail with 10 months suspended, and a non-parole period of seven months.

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