An Invermay woman received $165,000 worth of ice through the mail including a musical birthday card containing 3.5 grams, the Supreme Court in Launceston heard.
Janelle Maree McConnon, 45, pleaded guilty to trafficking in methylamphetamine between March 17 and June 1 last year.
She changed her plea to guilty after a jury had been sworn in.
Crown prosecutor Peter Sherriff said the birthday card was the second shipment of ice bound for McConnon that police had intercepted.
In April, police seized a DVD player containing 199.2 grams of ice that had been mailed via Australia Post to McConnon.
The birthday card was sent from a bayside suburb in Melbourne in May. When police intercepted the card, they made a black mark on the card to help with later identification.
On May 26, a package containing a Makita drill battery charger was sent to McConnon containing 111.6 grams of ice.
Mr Sherriff said that the price of ice increased during the COVID lockdowns and the total of 311 grams would have been worth up to $165,000.
"It was the basic economics of supply and demand," he said.
He said McConnon's bank records showed the deposit of amounts consistent with the purchase and sale of drugs.
In June 2020, police raided McConnon's Goderich Street home and found her wearing latex gloves and using a screwdriver to open the battery charger.
"The birthday card still had the black mark on it," Mr Sherriff said.
He said that the police intercepts meant the vast majority of the ice did not make it onto the streets of Tasmania.
After her arrest, McConnon admitted in an interview with police that she bought the drugs from the dark web and that she used ice every day.
Police obtained a warrant for McConnon's phone and found numerous messages relating to the sale of ice.
Mr Sherriff said it was not able to be ascertained how much was sold.
Defence counsel Evan Hughes said that McConnon sourced ice for a small number of friends.
"It was arranged and imported by her," he said.
He said that McConnon had been stood down from her job at the Launceston General Hospital.
Her job would be terminated if she was sentenced to more than six months' jail.
Mr Hughes tendered a reference from her LGH supervisor.
He submitted that McConnon be considered for a drug treatment order because there was a tangible link between her drug use and offending.
A drug treatment order allows some offenders to avoid jail if they comply with the conditions of the order including staying off drugs.
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He said McConnon was had not been completely abstinent from drug use since arrest but it had been "only a handful of times she has fallen off the wagon".
The court heard that it would take six weeks for a report to be completed on her eligibility and suitability for a DTO.
Justice Robert Pearce said it was relevant to McConnon's bail how quickly the report could come back to the court.
He remanded a tearful McConnon in custody for sentence on February 2 next year at 4.15pm.
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Nick Clark
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for the Examiner for the past 18 months. My journalism career has clicked over 30 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for the Examiner for the past 18 months. My journalism career has clicked over 30 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
