The Gold Coast Bulletin

Ex-bikie to serve year for dealing

- LEA EMERY

A FORMER Mongols bikie sergeant-at-arms will spend the next year behind bars after he was caught traffickin­g drugs for about four-and-a-half months.

John-Rae Ross Todd, 32, was part of a wider Mongols drug syndicate which sold ice, cocaine, steroids and cannabis. It was busted by a hi-tech police operation which involved convert surveillan­ce and tapping of phones.

Todd yesterday pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court of Queensland at Southport to one count of traffickin­g dangerous drugs.

Justice David Boddice sentenced him to four years prison with a parole release date of August 28 next year.

Crown prosecutor Mark Green told the court it was not known how much of the drug ice or cocaine Todd dealt between February 1 and June 24, 2015.

Mr Green said Todd was identified as a dealer through phone intercepts of Brenton Atkinson, whose Biggera Waters home was used to store the drugs. Last week, Atkinson was sentenced to eight years jail.

“(Todd) had at least six customers who he would sell to and some would then in turn sell to their own customer base,” Mr Green said.

He said the evidence the prosecutio­n presented showed Todd was only selling small amounts of the drug.

“It is difficult to say how many people he was servicing,” Mr Green said. “The vast majority, if not all the transactio­ns … were street-level strategy in personal-use quantities.”

Defence barrister Anthony Kimmins, instructed by Gatenby Lawyers, said Todd had not committed an offence since he was charged, except for breaching his bail.

He said Todd was father to twin baby daughters and was trying to turn over a new leaf.

Todd appeared in the dock yesterday dressed in a black suit. His cropped hair showed the word “Mongols” tattooed on the right side of his head above his ear.

He also had the remnants of facial tattoos which appeared to have been treated by laser surgery.

Mr Boddice ordered conviction­s be recorded.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Australia