A RECIDIVIST drug trafficker again found guilty by jury – for trafficking ice and heroin with an estimated street value of $382,000 – has been jailed for more than four years.
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Launceston man Luke James Reader, 30, remained handcuffed for sentencing in the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Justice Robert Pearce jailed Reader for four and a half years, backdated to September 27, 2014, with a non-parole period of three years.
He noted that Reader had been handed a nine-month suspended sentence in Victoria in March 2013 for trafficking a drug of dependence, but he said he did not know if Reader was in breach of that suspended sentence.
Justice Pearce jailed Reader’s co-accused girlfriend Christina Vernessa Watson, 22, for 20 months, backdated to March 1, 2015, with six months suspended for two years upon release, and a non-parole period of seven months.
He said Watson had ‘‘fallen under the influence’’ of Reader who was the principal offender and she lacked maturity and judgment in doing so.
Last week, Reader was found guilty by a Launceston jury of trafficking in high purity crystal methylamphetamine in amounts of 55.1 grams and 321 grams, trafficking in 12.8 grams of heroin and having dealt with proceeds of crime, being $68,000 cash.
Jurors found Watson guilty of the proceeds of crime charge, but not guilty of the trafficking of 55.1 grams of methylamphetamine and 12.8 grams of heroin at Youngtown on February 7, 2014.
Watson had already pleaded guilty to the trafficking of 321 grams of crystal methylamphetamine at Launceston Airport on March 12, 2014.
Reader and Watson had also pleaded guilty to several related summary offences, including having flown on false names on flights to and from Melbourne in March 2014.