The notorious head of a South Australian drug-trafficking network has been sentenced to nearly 20 years in jail.
Robert Gordon Pollybank Gee, the alleged drug lord, was sentenced yesterday in the District Court for drug expenses courting back to 2006, ABC News reported.
The court docket heard how the 64 12 months outdated was a pivotal figure within the operation of a drug-trafficking network which illegally imported massive portions of cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA and LSD, in accordance with the District Court’s verdict.
The court docket heard that Gee was among 5 men apprehended at Bar Funk on Bangla Road in 2016 by Patong Police and the Tourist Police, as nicely as the Australian Federal Police. Police tracked their actions using cellphones and surveillance, resulting in the acquisition of evidence.
Regardless of whether it was just to repay playing debts, Justice McIntyre found that Gee’s motivation was monetary. The drug lord’s place on the pinnacle of the operation, combined together with his absconding to Thailand and 4 earlier drug convictions, warranted a more severe sentence than his co-accused, according to her.
Gee was handed a 19-year and six-month head sentence with a 12-year non-parole time period, which was backdated to 2020.
Gee fled Australia in 2011 when he was facing drug charges. After the arrests, police found medicine valued at approximately US$1.2 million in an Adelaide house.
The drug lord was granted bail however absconded to Thailand in 2011 utilizing a cast passport. He spent over four years in a Thai jail, where his well being deteriorated, after being detained for passport offences in 2016. After serving his sentence, police applied for his extradition, and Gee was returned to Australia in 2020 to stand trial.
Snap expressed concerns with Gee’s testimony that he bought medicine to pay off a US$400,000 playing debt through the trial.
She told Gee that this argument had little impact on the severity of the crime.
Gee’s case serves as a warning to individuals who imagine they’ll evade the law and proceed to interact in illegal activities. The sentence demonstrates that the courts take drug trafficking critically and will impose lengthy sentences on those that take part in such activity..