A MAN arrested inside a Peppers Seaport Hotel drug den has been sentenced to 16 months’ jail.
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Jacob Adam Williams was found with more than 20 grams of methamphetamine totalling about $14,000 in his underwear when he was arrested by police over a stolen lamp at Hotel Charles in February 2014.
He was then arrested again after he was found lying on a Seaport hotel room bed inside an elaborate drug set-up in June the same year.
The set-up contained an ice collection potentially totalling more than $100,000, a safe containing thousands of dollars in cash, a gun, and drug paraphernalia.
Williams was subsequently charged with two counts of trafficking and one count of dealing with the proceeds of crime and pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Last week he was found guilty by a jury of the trafficking charges in the Launceston Supreme Court, but he was cleared of dealing with the proceeds of crime.
During Williams’ sentencing on Thursday afternoon, Chief Justice Alan Blow said Williams had been in custody since March last year.
Williams was convicted of drug trafficking in 2011, 2012 and twice in 2014.
“(His latest guilty verdict) doesn’t establish that he was in charge of the drugs (found at Peppers Seaport Hotel),” Chief Justice Blow said.
“He was a minor party.”
Chief Justice Blow ruled the only appropriate punishment for his latest trafficking charges was further time in prison “because of the terrible effect (ice) has on people”.
Williams would have been eligable for parole in 2017, but his latest sentence means he will not be released until he has served at least eight months of his new 16-month term.