Dealer’s ‘high life’ boast
But law puts him behind bars until 2024
A TOWNSVILLE drug dealer who bragged about enjoying “the high life” has been jailed after he was busted with more than 2000 MDMA pills and almost 60kg of cannabis.
Marcus Oliver Mueller, 25, was arrested on November 15, 2020 when police stopped a Holden Commodore Ute that he was a passenger in as it travelled to Townsville through Alligator Creek.
The court heard Mueller made at least five trips to Rockhampton and the Gold Coast to visit his cannabis supplier before he sold the drugs in Townsville.
Crown Prosecutor Monique Sheppard said Mueller and his co-accused, who has already been sentenced, were in possession of 59.8 kgs of cannabis, more than 2000 MDMA tablets, 33 grams of pure cocaine and a “substantial” amount of methylamphetamine, which had been concealed within toolboxes and behind the seats of the car.
“It’s certainly clear, as your honour has read in the statement of facts, that the last trip that the defendant made to the Gold Coast, he had a commercial intent ...,” she said.
Ms Sheppard said Mueller enjoyed “the high life”, using cash to buy the ute he was intercepted in and had bought Louis Vutton and other designer products.
He also “boasted” of spending $25,000 on a birthday weekend.
Ms Sheppard said Mueller was “solely motivated by greed and a desire to make easy money”.
The value of the drugs located in Mueller’s possession were estimated to range from $800,000 to as much as $1.7 million if sold to an end user.
Ms Sheppard said Mueller’s fingerprints were found on the bags of cannabis that were discovered in his possession during the intercept.
Images distributed in Snapchat in May of 2020, showed Mueller in possession of another $200,000 worth of cannabis.
Mueller’s defence barrister, Dane Marley, said his client had entered an early guilty plea and had not reoffended in the period since his arrest.
Townsville Supreme Court judge David North sentenced Mueller to serve six years imprisonment.
“It has to be reinforced with you that your conduct was totally unacceptable, seriously criminal and so serious as to call for significant sentences of imprisonment,” Justice North said.
“The evidence placed before me suggests you have been making some progress towards rehabilitation, you have been on bail for almost two years now and have not come to the adverse attentions of police.”
He will be eligible for parole from November 28, 2024.