A man busted at the Launceston Airport by a drug detection dog owned up to having a "fair bit of gear in a backpack", the Supreme Court in Launceston heard.
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Lachlan Anthony Le Fevre, 29, pleaded guilty to a count of trafficking in a controlled substance at Western Junction on June 1, 2022.
Crown prosecutor James Thompson said that Tasmania Police and the drug detection dog were screening passengers at Launceston Airport when the dog gave a positive indication to the accused, a co-accused woman.
"The accused and the co-accused were taken aside and asked if they had anything in the backpack," Mr Thompson said.
"Yeh, some gear," Mr Thompson related Le Fevre as saying.
He told police there was a fair bit of methylamphetamine (ice) in his backpack.
The ice was hidden in a face mask with a transparent front.
When decanted, there was 108.9 grams of ice, which Mr Thompson said was worth $54,000.
Le Fevre told police he had flown to Melbourne the day before and bought the ice for $15,000 from a contact he communicated with via an encrypted application.
Later the same day, police searched a Newnham address where further ice, MDMA tablets, the drug Liquid G, smoking devices and shotgun cartridges were found.
Mr Thompson said Le Fevre had spent 218 days in custody relating to the charges.
The court heard that he had fled to Queensland in 2022 after getting bail. An arrest warrant was issued when he did not appear in the Launceston Magistrates Court.
He was sentenced to seven months in jail for breach of bail.
Mr Thompson said that while Le Fevre told police he had imported the drugs for personal use, the State's case was that he intended to sell the drug.
Defence lawyer Patrick O'Halloran admitted that Le Fevre had several prior offences in Queensland.
He said that while the crime required a degree of planning, it was relatively easily detected, and Le Fevre was candid with the police.
He said the flight to Queensland was to break a cycle of offending.
Justice Robert Pearce remanded Le Fevre in custody for sentence on May 7.
In 2016, Le Fevre, then 20, was jailed after pleading guilty to 17 charges in Southport, Queensland, after leading police on a pursuit in which he drove through red traffic lights and drove on the wrong side of the road.
In 2020, he was also convicted in Queensland on a count of possession of a dangerous drug and two counts of possessing utensils.
In 2016, he received a wholly suspended three-jail term in Queensland for trafficking.
Nick Clark
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for the Examiner for the past 18 months. My journalism career has clicked over 30 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for the Examiner for the past 18 months. My journalism career has clicked over 30 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
