Police find ecstasy, cannabis and cocaine in teens bag on way to schoolies

The car the teenager and his mates were travelling in was stopped at a stationary road-side testing site the police had set up on the Newell Highway at Boggabilla, north of Moree in NSW, on Friday, November 25, last year.

Solicitor Mason Manwaring said his client was with six of his good mates when they were stopped on their way to schoolies.

"This was when there was some heavy rain," he said, saying most of the schoolies traffic was diverted to the highway due to the danger on the smaller roads.

Mr Manwaring said the police "decided to set up [the testing site] to look for schoolies to see if they had drugs on them".

During the stop the police found drugs in the teenager's vehicle, he was spoken to and directed them to look in the side pocket of his bag, which was in the boot.

Police found 15.3 grams of cannabis, one gram of cocaine and 40 capsules of MDMA (ecstasy).

The teenager was arrested and walked to the Boggabilla police station where he was charged with drug possession for the cannabis and cocaine and drug supply for the ecstasy, which was classed as being more than an indictable amount but less than commercial.

Although there was no direct evidence he intended to supply the drugs, the 13.5 grams of ecstasy was classed as a trafficable amount.

Mr Manwaring said one of the boys was previously sentenced for drug possession and was not convicted while the others who were charged are yet to appear in court on supply charges.

He said all of them are working and otherwise productive members of the community but the client he represented on Thursday was the one who was "holding the bag, so to speak".

ALSO READ

"They made admissions for putting in for the drugs," Mr Manwaring said.

"If they thought about what they were doing for half a second they might have been a bit more careful.

"The level of stupidity is hard to fathom.

"That's the point of the 40 tablets, there are seven of them and they were going away for eight days.

"That's less than one each per day."

Magistrate David Day said "on its face" the case looked serious according to the Drugs Misuse and Trafficking Act, and "it is serious" but said rather than career criminals or repeat offenders this involved a "group of foolish ex-secondary graduate students".

"They have chipped in so they don't run out of drugs, jocks and socks and t-shirts, and they get caught," he said.

"The offences are most serious, they are far from trivial."

ALSO READ

However, Mr Day added that in this case, "he's young and foolish, he wasn't in the business of supplying drugs".

Mr Day said a conviction for drug supply will not help the teenager at all with this future employment and would limit his travel options.

In this case Mr Day decided not to convict the teenager but he did place him on a two-year conditional release order with supervision.

The 18-year-old is not named due to the absence of a conviction.