A jury took less than three hours to find two men guilty of importing a commercial quantity of a controlled drug.
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Toby John Della Valle and Shea Alex Gibbling tried to import MDMA from Spain to Australia via the post, but the parcel was intercepted by an Australian Border Force officer in Sydney.
The MDMA was swapped for an identical salt by Australian Federal Police and a controlled delivery was arranged.
The parcel was addressed to Shea Hasting at Upper York Street in Launceston, but it was redirected by Della Valle to a Riverside house.
Officers from the federal police, Tasmania Police and Border Force executed a search warrant on the house where the two accused lived after Gibbling signed for the parcel.
Another two bags of MDMA were found in the house during the search; one in a Glasshouse candle box in insulation batts and the other in PVC pipe in Gibbling’s bedroom.
Police also found $23,650 in cash in a safe in Della Valle’s bedroom and two MacBook Airs belonging to Gibbling were seized from his bedroom.
THE TRIAL
Individually the men were also charged with trafficking a marketable quantity of a controlled drug in relation to the additional MDMA found during the police search.
The jury found Della Valle and Gibbling guilty of the trafficking charge.
The maximum penalty for importing a controlled drug is life imprisonment and the maximum for trafficking a marketable quantity of a controlled drug is 25 years’ jail.
