A Newnham woman was busted with ice worth up to $115,000 when she walked past a sniffer dog at the Launceston Airport, the Supreme Court in Launceston heard.
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Dawn Anne Marie Ward, 27, pleaded guilty to trafficking in ice and cannabis in Melbourne, Launceston and surrounding areas between November 17, 2019, and May 6, 2020.
Last week the court heard that Ward continued trafficking in the months after despite being charged and bailed.
She also pleaded guilty to trafficking in a controlled substance (MDMA known as ecstasy) in Newnham on July 28, 2020.
Ward was also in possession of $4265 cash on October 1, 2020. She pleaded guilty to dealing with the proceeds of crime and the lesser charge of selling a controlled substance.
She also pleaded guilty to two offences under Commonwealth law and a raft of offences including driving while disqualified that would normally be heard in the Launceston Magistrates Court.
Crown prosecutor Luke Ogden said that a sniffer dog picked her out when she walked off an aeroplane into the Launceston terminal on January 14, 2020.
A search found a small black bag.
"There's f---ing meth in there okay," Ms Ward said to police.
Mr Ogden said Ward travelled to Melbourne earlier in the day under the name of Jessica Ward and picked up 111.4 grams of crystal methylamphetamine in a Melbourne suburb. A later search of her home found scales, notebooks, a Samsung tablet and snaplock bags of drugs.
She told police in an interview that she was in a really dangerous situation and had been sent to pick up the drugs by people in Launceston.
A mobile phone had 109 text messages indicating drug sales and a notebook contained a tick sheet [names of debtors] with 53 names dating back to December 2019.
On April 9, she was caught driving while disqualified and further evidence of drug selling was found on a mobile phone that was seized.
In May, a further raid of her home found evidence of drug selling from April 13 - five days after she was bailed on disqualified driving.
In July 2020, she was caught disqualified driving and a search found snaplock bags of MDMA, scales and $9915 in cash and two mobile phones. She was refused bail by a magistrate but achieved bail in the Supreme Court on August 26.
In October in George Street, Ward was again caught driving while disqualified and had $4265 in cash.
She provided a PIN code to mobile phones which established selling between September 1 and October 1-one week after being released from prison.
Ward told police that once she started selling drugs it was not that easy to stop.
"They don't let you," Mr Ogden quoted from Ward's police interview.
"When asked who she said 'the people who run the drug scene in Tasmania'."
Mr Ogden said $9915 had been forfeited as unexplained wealth.
"It was a reasonably well organised if not sophisticated enterprise ... and it was clear from the volume of sales and the number of names on the tick sheets that it was successful," Mr Ogden said.
He said that it was an aggravating factor that much of the trafficking occurred while she was on bail and while she had a suspended sentence.
She had spent time in prison and there were 39 days not attributed to any other sentence.
Defence counsel Evan Hughes asked that Ward be assessed for suitability for a drug treatment order.
Under an order, a convicted person can avoid actual jail as long as they abide by the terms of the order.
Mr Hughes said Ward was sentenced to jail from November 14 to March 24, 2021, by a Magistrate.
"It took incarceration for Ms Ward to break the cycle of addiction and associations and debts that caused her to be drawn back in," he said.
Ward's background was one of family violence and drug abuse.
Her father Gregory Harland-White was a well-known criminal who died in an Indonesian jail last year, the court heard.
Mr Hughes submitted that Ward had made significant moves towards rehabilitation since being released from prison.
Mr Hughes said Ward was 14 weeks pregnant and was due to give birth in October.
"But it's not a perfect picture," he said.
However, he revealed that Ward faced charges in the Magistrates Court in April 2022 for driving while disqualified, breach of bail and shoplifting.
She used ice until October 21 and still struggled with the use of cannabis.
"What is not there is selling or possession of illicit substances," he said.
Justice Robert Pearce asked prosecution for an indication of the value of the trafficking but Mr Ogden could not supply a figure.
He agreed to have Ward assessed for suitability for a drug treatment order but warned that his decision was not made.
"I don't want you to leave here with the impression that I am going to make such an order," he said.
Ward was bailed to reappear for sentencing on June 17 at 10am for sentence.
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