Dealer mother sent to prison

A MOTHER of two will be separated from her family for at least nine months after being jailed for trafficking ice.

Coriander Marigold Gardiner had been the target of a police operation investigating drug trafficking in the Stanthorpe area in late 2020 to early 2021, Toowoomba Supreme Court heard.

A police search of Gardiner’s home on December 23, 2021, had found a small amount of meth but more seriously police found a series of messages on her mobile phone, which was seized, that pointed to her drug trafficking.

Crown prosecutor Nicole Friedewald told the court Gardiner had, over a five month period, trafficked ice to a customer base of about 16 people.

Her operation was to source up to 3.5g of meth at a time before breaking that down into small amounts and selling at street level in amounts from 0.1g to 0.5g, she said.

Over the period, some 36 transfers of money amounting to $11,000 had been paid into Gardiner’s bank account but the Crown accepted that was a gross amount and that, as a drug user herself, the 37-yearold would have used that money to source further drugs, she said.

Ms Friedewald said Gardiner had tried to avoid detection by using codes such as “egg”, “chook”, “shirt” and “clothing” when arranging drug deals and she had threatened those owing her money for drugs at times.

Gardiner, who sobbed through much of the sentence hearing, pleaded guilty to trafficking meth, supplying cannabis and possessing meth and cannabis and drug utensils.

Ms Friedewald said Gardiner had a history of drug offending but this had been an escalation.

Her barrister Steve Kissick said his client had two young children who would live with Gardiner’s sister while she was in jail.

His client had engaged with Lives Lived Well for drug counselling since her arrest and upon her release from custody intended helping her mother start a business in the Stanthorpe area growing plants, he said.

There were no signs to any profit for his client’s offending and, in fact, “she’s lost everything”, he said.

Justice Martin Burns said the offending was serious though partially to support Gardiner’s own addiction.

“Over a period of five months you peddled the same brand of misery to others that you were suffering yourself,” he told her.

Justice Burns sentenced Gardiner to three years in jail but ordered she be released on parole on February 25, 2023, after having served nine months.