Coast man jailed over 4000 ecstasy tablets
12:00a.m. 5 October 2007
By Rae Wilson
A Sunshine Coast man has been jailed for two and a half years after pleading guilty to importing $10,000 worth of ecstasy tablets to a Maroochydore post office box.
Nathan William Cook, 24, of Caloundra, faced Brisbane Supreme Court yesterday charged with importing a marketable quantity of the border-controlled drug, methylenedioxymethamphetamine and possessing utensil for use.
Mr Cook, who had already served 134 days in custody, will be released on parole after he has served nine months of his sentence.
The postal package, containing 400 tablets, never arrived at its Coast destination.
A customs officer at the Brisbane International Airport mail-handling unit discovered the Ireland package had 29.4grams of pure MDMA after X-rays revealed anomalies on May 15.
The content was 59 times the marketable quantity, which is half a gram.
The court heard 28 paper cylinders were hidden inside a magazine in a package addressed to a post office box at Australia Post’s Maroochydore Business Centre in Comstar Avenue.
An Australian Federal Police investigation found that the post office box had been opened by the accused man six days before the narcotics arrived in Australia.
With help from Queensland police, a search warrant was executed at the man’s Caloundra address where post box documents and a pipe was seized.
Mr Cook, a tall man with dark hair, did not apply for bail when he appeared in Maroochydore Magistrates Court in May this year.
Barrister Simon Lewis, instructed by Ryan and Bosscher Lawyers, told the supreme court yesterday that Mr Cook was using ecstasy on the weekends, from Thursday to Sunday whenever he went out.
He said Mr Cook had been introduced to a man from Belfast, where the drug was readily available and cheap.
Mr Lewis said the Irish man could send enough pills to last Mr Cook and his friends three months.
He said Mr Cook paid just $2000 for the pills which he planned to share among his mates.
Mr Lewis said Mr Cook had no previous drug supply convictions and there was no evidence he intended to supply on a commercial level.