Posts Categorized: Drug Law

Commonwealth Drug Offences in Australia: Drug Importation and Beyond

Shipping containers

By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim PM Scott Morrison, home affairs minister Karen Andrews and AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw lined up before the press last June, to announce the success of the transnational drug crime investigation known locally as Operation Ironside. Spruiked as the “most significant operation in policing history”, Ironside had, at that time, resulted in… Read more »

NSW Drug Supply Offences, Deemed Supply and the Overturning of the Clark Principle

Packing cocaine

By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim Alleged leader of a southwest Sydney dial-a-cocaine ring Sarah Rutherford was released on bail on 13 May this year, after being remanded in prison for close to three months, following a late February raid on her Greenacre home, which turned up the illicit substance and drug paraphernalia. The 30-year-old… Read more »

The Offence of Importing a Border Controlled Drug

Imported goods

By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim On 7 February this year, Australian federal police (AFP) and Victoria police executed search warrants in NSW and Victoria that led to the arrest of two US nationals and two Australians in and around Melbourne, while two men were arrested in their south-western Sydney homes. The drug raids related… Read more »

Sentence Reduced as Judge Got the Maximum Penalty Wrong

Supreme Law Courts Building

By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim On 10 November 2016, street-level drug dealer Hayden O’Neill introduced his drug supplier Michael O’Neile to a man who was interested in buying some methamphetamine. Unbeknownst to both dealers, the interested buyer was an undercover police operative. Mr O’Neile supplied the police officer with 13.88 grams of ice with… Read more »