Drug trafficker set free

Woman who helped run cannabis syndicate a victim of violence

A HENCHWOMAN in one of the largest drug syndicates busted by NT Police in recent years was handed a suspended sentence last week as the net tightens around the others involved.

South Australian Leanne Haley, 51, was handed a twoyear jail sentence, suspended immediately, for her “peripheral involvement” in a drug syndicate which shipped 460kg of cannabis from South Australia to Darwin in six months last year.

Haley pleaded guilty to supplying a commercial quantity of cannabis but the court heard her involvement in the plot was limited to helping “partner of sorts” James Weston moving large boxes of the drug, repackaging it in vacuum-sealed packages and counting cash with a bank-style money counter.

Weston is yet to enter a plea to his alleged role as the Darwin connection, but the courts have separately heard he and alleged syndicate principal, Giuseppe Bruno Romeo, are likely to plead guilty in the new year.

Chief Justice Grant said he assumed Haley had been the subject of “violence of a domestic nature” at the hands of Weston, who had previously been “involved with an outlaw motorcycle gang”. Haley, who has a long history of mental health issues, was arrested during a police raid at the house she was sharing with Weston in Marrara, where police found 9kg of cannabis, $70,000 in cash, scales, a sales ledger and the money counter.

Police have previously said the group was one of the main suppliers of cannabis in Darwin.

Chief Justice Grant said Haley’s involvement in the syndicate was sustained, but that she was not instrumental to its operations.

He said Haley received no financial reward from the more than $1 million worth of the drug she helped Weston and the rest of the syndicate put onto the streets of Darwin.

Chief Justice Grant said sending Haley to jail would unnecessarily disrupt her mental health treatment in Adel- aide. He said he concluded “although not without significant difficulty” that Haley met the “exceptional circumstances” test to avoid the mandatory minimum of 28 days actual jail time commercial cannabis supply charges typically carry.

Haley returned to Adelaide on Wednesday and the court heard she had no plans to come back to the Northern Territory.