Drug runners sentenced
THE dark side of Cairns' party scene has been revealed in court, with five drug runners sentenced for selling hundreds of pills at nightclubs.
All five men, ranging in age from 19 to 46, were nabbed in operation Foxtrot Size, where an undercover police officer approached dealers in nightclubs asking for drugs.
More than 30 people were arrested in the sting.
The first to be sentenced in Cairns Supreme Court yesterday, 28-year-old Adrian Graham Koch, pleaded guilty to three counts of supplying ecstasy and two of supplying methamphetamine.
The court heard Koch organised to buy $1000 worth of ecstasy pills, supplying $600 worth to the covert police officer.
He also introduced the officer to his supplier and told him he had given a waitress methamphetamine and watched her inject it.
Koch was sentenced to two years' jail, but walked out of court on immediate parole.
Maitland Shannon Chitty, 19, pleaded guilty to charges including supplying cannabis, producing cannabis and supplying 100 ecstasy tablets to undercover police.
Crown prosecutor Michael Connolly said Chitty told police that he had many dealers and went on to boast about the quality of his drugs.
He was also sentenced to two years' jail with immediate parole.
Next was Ty William Jenkin, who supplied the undercover officer with $9000 worth of drugs including 340 ecstasy pills and 100 tabs of LSD acid.
He told the officer he was well-known in the party scene and had a number of customers.
The extent of his involvement in the sale of drugs saw him jailed for four months of a three-year sentence.
Cory Stephen Elgers Larkin, 22, who admitted to trafficking ecstasy for nine months and supplying speed and LSD to the covert officer, walked out of court on immediate parole.
Justice Stanley Jones said there were exceptional circumstances in Elgers Larkin's case because he admitted to a crime that was not uncovered by police.
Finally, middleman and career drug dealer David Michael Reid, 46, pleaded guilty to trafficking speed and ecstasy and producing speed.
The court heard his trafficking happened over a 15-month period and he was involved in supplying Koch and another smaller dealer who was caught in the operation.
His fingerprints were also found on equipment used to produce speed.
He has spent the past year in custody and will not be eligible for parole until June 2010.
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Heavy traffic: Maitland Shannon Chitty was among the five drug runners sentenced in Cairns yesterday.
Sentence: Corey Stephen Elgers Larkin.
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