Not at 'top echelon': drug trafficker caught with drugs, $5800 in his car

A drug trafficker who was caught with multiple drugs in his car on one occasion, and two knives in his bag on another, has been sentenced.

The 23-year-old man faced the ACT Magistrate Court on Tuesday (18 February), charged with six offences that were committed between 2021 and 2025.

The 2021 offences are one charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one of choking, suffocating or strangling another person.

He was before the court to deal with suspended sentences for these charges. Region has chosen not to name the man as these charges relate to family violence.

Magistrate Glenn Theakston said breaches of suspended sentences needed to be taken seriously.

“There needs to be a clear message that suspended sentences are real, and there will be consequences for beaching those orders,” he said.

The court heard that at 3 am on 2 September 2023, the man was found in a car with electronic scales, empty bags and around $5800 in the car.

About 61.5 grams of MDMA and 12.7 grams of cocaine were found in the car, as well as methamphetamine, which saw him charged with two charges of trafficking in a controlled drug other than cannabis and one charge of possessing a drug of dependence.

He was also sentenced for a charge of possessing a knife without a reasonable excuse.

The charge came after he was found in a Dickson carpark with two folding knives in his satchel bag on 2 February 2025.

In court, the man’s defence lawyer, Tom Taylor of Hugo Law Group, argued that his client’s moral culpability should be reduced because of his traumatic upbringing.

The court heard he was born overseas, with his family moving to Australia when he was 16.

Mr Taylor said his client wasn’t “in the top echelon” of drug traffickers, but instead was a “streel-level dealer” who sold drugs to support his own use.

Also, he asked that his client be fined for the charge of possessing a knife without reasonable excuse and said imprisonment would be unnecessary.

The prosecutor argued that the trafficking offending was motivated, in part, to make a profit.

“[If it is accepted that he was addicted,] the motivation was likely duel – that is, some for profit and some to [support] the addiction that [the man] had at that particular point in time,” he said.

While Mr Taylor had argued that it was at the lower end of the seriousness level for similar offences, the prosecutor said it was closer to the lower end of the mid-range.

Also, he told the court the man hadn’t shown any “remorse or insight” into his offending, describing his rehabilitative prospects as “guarded”.

In sentencing the man, Magistrate Theakston said there was nothing to show he was doing it “for profit”.

“I accept, for the purpose of sentencing, that the trafficking was for the purpose of funding [his own use],” he said.

Also, he said it was “hard not to accept” a “nexus” between the offending and his past trauma as a child, with a sentence needing to offer “some degree of hope” and encourage rehabilitation.

He was sentenced to imprisonment until February 2026, with a portion backdated to account for time already spent in custody. His non-parole period will finish in April 2025.

For the charges of possessing a drug of dependence and of possessing a knife without reasonable excuse, he was fined $500.