A BRISBANE man caught with more than 4.5kg of cannabis as well as cocaine was trying to avoid being caught by travelling on the back roads near Glen Innes, a magistrate has found.
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Lochie Stephen Jenkins pleaded guilty to the deemed supply of 4.49kg of cannabis and possessing 1.2g of cocaine after he was intercepted at Dundee on May 2.
Police were scouring Bald Knob Rd as part of a separate police operation when they intercepted a white Toyota utility.
Police said Jenkins was “visibly shaking and appeared unusually nervous” and noticed the smell of cannabis.
Inside the car, they found seven large vacuum sealed bags containing cannabis head and a large black garbage bag containing cannabis leaf.
In a storage compartment, officers found two more resealable bags of cannabis as well as a bag of cocaine.
The 23-year-old apprentice carpenter appeared in Armidale Local Court for sentencing where solicitor Gerhard van der Linde said his client had been a chronic abuse of cannabis and started smoking when he was 14.
“He instructs he buys his marijuana in bulk,” he said.
“He only buys organic.”
Mr van der Linde said “there was no intention for financial gain,” but conceded his client “would offer friends free marijuana”.
He instructs he buys his marijuana in bulk. He only buys organic.
- Solicitor Gerhard van der Linde
“Most of it was for his own use because he is a chronic user,” he said.
“He had a serious problem and this has landed him where he is.”
Police prosecutor Cheryl Hall said Jenkins was intercepted by police going between the Gwydir and New England Highways in “a fairly isolated area”.
“That weight is a very significant amount of cannabis that is being transported from one location to another,” she said.
Magistrate Michael Holmes jailed Jenkins for 18 months with a minimum of nine months in prison.
That weight is a very significant amount of cannabis that is being transported from one location to another.
- Police prosecutor Cheryl Hall
“Clearly you were trying to avoid detection,” he said.
“A lot of drug traffickers travel on those obscure ways.
“You can see the quantity is quite significant and one that is more than for personal use.”
Clearly you were trying to avoid detection.
- Magistrate Michael Holmes