Drug pusher stays in jail

A CONVICTED trafficker who supplied methylamphetamine to drug runners in one of Townsville’s biggest drug rings has failed in a bid to have his conviction quashed.

Matthew Francis Olssen, who was jailed for trafficking, supplying and possessing methylamphetamine after a two- day trial in 2016, has had an attempt to appeal his con- viction and the related nineyear jail sentence dismissed.

Olssen’s lawyer argued in a hearing last October that the evidence in relation to the trafficking was insufficient to prove it involved methylamphetamine. It was also argued that Olssen’s sentence was more severe than other sentences imposed on members of the drug network.

But the Court of Appeal has found that the grounds for ap- peal did not have merit. During his 2016 trial, jurors heard evidence about Olssen’s involvement in a drug network led by kingpin Peter Heilbronn.

Stewart Grainger gave evidence that he made a trip to Brisbane from Townsville, meeting a man named Matt Olssen at the Queen Street Mall Hungry Jacks after being asked by Heilbronn to pick up drugs. Grainger told the court he flew down, taking $ 10,000 in cash that had been given to him by Heilbronn “wrapped up as a present” and met Olssen at Hungry Jacks to give him the cash.

He said they then went into a multi- level car park, where Olssen gave him a massage machine.

The court heard Grainger then took the bus to Townsville and got off at the Alligator Creek roadhouse, where he was picked up by a man called Jeffrey Alexander, who drove him to Heilbronn’s house.

Grainger gave evidence he and Alexander dropped the machine off with Heilbronn.

Justice Philip Morrison said Grainger’s evidence could lead to the conclusion that the package contained dangerous drugs “and almost certainly methylamphetamine”.

“The value of what was collected was not the machine, which was worth only $ 300,” he said. “To suggest that $ 10,000 in cash which was handed in a clandestine way, in the course of a short stop on a return trip to Townsville, and when the contents had been identified at least as drugs, and were to be handed to Heilbronn, was payment for anything other than dangerous drugs is fanciful.”

Olssen will be eligible for parole after serving six- and- ahalf years of his sentence.