Drug syndicate members jailed

KEY members of a Melbourne-based syndicate that trafficked drugs into Swan Hill have been jailed.

The County Court of Victoria heard the syndicate moved a significant amount of drugs consistently to the Mildura, Swan Hill and Kerang areas between July 2019 and December 2019.

The Victoria Police Mallee divisional response unit instigated Operation XENA-2019 in response to the suspected trafficking of drugs into the region and intercepted almost 4700 telephone calls and text messages to help uncover the extent of the offending.

The syndicate accepted cash, cash deposits and big items such as boats and cars in exchange for methamphetamine or to pay off drug debts during the offending period.

The telephone intercepts revealed that Matthew James Rowe was buying commercial quantities of methamphetamine from Raymond Le Guier on average once a week.

Rowe would on-sell to two co-accused at a profit for further distribution in the Mildura area.

The court was told Rowe was the main target of the police operation who would on-sell drugs with a mark-up of at least $500 per ounce over and above the price for which he had purchased the drug from Le Guier.

Rowe’s sentencing hearing was told that in November 2019 alone, in four transactions of on-selling wholesale amounts of methamphetamine to the syndicate, he made a profit of somewhere between $16,100 and $24,800.

Fifteen people were arrested as part of the police operation with Le Guier this month jailed for his involvement.

Police allege the amount of drug trafficked during the offending period was about 1.5 kilograms

County Court Judge Nola Karapanagiotidis said the offending was “inherently serious” and sentencing must reflect the serious harm and devastation that illicit drugs cause within the community.

Le Guier, who pleaded guilty to one charge of trafficking in a commercial quantity of methamphetamine and one charge of trafficking in a drug of dependence, received a total effective sentence of seven years and six months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of four years and eight months.

Rowe, who pleaded guilty to one charge of trafficking in a large commercial quantity of methamphetamine, was sentenced to eight years and nine months’ jail.

Two other men were sentenced to four years and six months and three years and four months respectively after pleading guilty to traffick a commercial quantity of methamphetamine, and two counts of traffick a drug of dependence.