Ex-footballer jailed for trafficking operation stashing cocaine and meth in underground pipes

A former Tasmanian footballer has been jailed after his drug trafficking operation – in which he stashed drugs in PVC pipes buried underground – was foiled by police.

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IT WAS a cunning operation – PVC pipes stashed with drugs and money, buried vertically in pine plantations and covered up with vegetation, identifiable only with a rock placed on top.

The man in charge of that drug trafficking racket kept his “stash points” at Cambridge, Acton and Seven Mile Beach.

But with police foiling his operation, Justin Richard Maynard will now spend at least the next 14 months at Risdon Prison.

The former Brighton Football Club player faced the Supreme Court of Tasmania on Tuesday after he was found guilty by a jury of trafficking cocaine and ice.

Justice Gregory Geason said the 47-year-old was arrested in April 2015 after police spent months investigating, using a variety of methods like phone tapping and physical and electronic surveillance.

He said video footage showed people, including Maynard, attending the pipes to stash or retrieve drugs or money.

When police discovered the pipes, they found a few hundred grams of cocaine and meth hidden inside – but Justice Geason noted the drugs were cut with other substances to create more volume.

Justin Richard Maynard leaving the Supreme Court of Tasmania in a previous hearing.

Justice Geason said he’d been unconvinced during the trial by evidence from another man who’d been involved in the operation.

He said that men tried to convince the jury that Maynard only played a minor role in the trafficking business, which Justice Geason found “implausible”.

“You were in charge,” he told Maynard.

The judge also noted at the time of the drug trafficking, Maynard was on parole for similar offending committed back in 2010.

At that time, Maynard’s Rokeby home was searched, with police finding a capped PVC pipe buried in his backyard and stashed with meth, $42,000 in cash, guns, ammunition and a silencer.

But Justice Geason also noted that Maynard had not offended since 2015 and he’d achieved a “significant turnaround” in his life.

“In substance, I accept I am sentencing a different person from the one that committed the crime,” he said.

Justice Geason sentenced Maynard to three years and two months’ jail, with 12 months suspended.

He must serve 14 months before he is eligible for parole.

Justin Richard Maynard

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