Two Perth men, Marc Quaid, 39, and his courier, 51-year-old Roberto Zanon, have been jailed for their involvement in a multi-million dollar drug operation that they ran out of the Western Australian capital. Quaid was sentenced to 23 years in prison, while Zanon was handed a 14-year sentence.
As ABC News reports, Quaid, whom District Court judge Bruce Goetze described as a high-level dealer who was able to “shift large quantities, very quickly”, will serve at least 20 years in prison after being found guilty of selling more than 12 kilograms of methamphetamine.
Prosecutor Linda Petrusa described Quaid as “prolific, persistent and consistent” in his trafficking, citing emails that document the movement of nearly 13kg of meth, 1kg of cocaine, and 3,000 ecstasy pills in just over two weeks.
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Meanwhile, The West Australian reports that in another email, Quaid indicated his belief that he could have sold 40,000 ecstasy pills during two music festivals over one long weekend, though it was not specified which music festivals or whether the deals took place in WA.
Police charged Quaid and Zanon after officers uncovered drugs at a warehouse in the Perth suburb of Malaga. The court was told that the methamphetamine haul seized was worth up to $4.5 million and would have fetched even more at street level.
While Judge Goetze claimed that Quaid was in the “worst category of offenders” and “at the top, or very near the top” of a sophisticated drug dealing operation, Quaid’s lawyer insisted his client was not at the very top of the syndicate as he had referred to a boss in the emails.
During the trial earlier this year it was revealed that Quaid, who had three children, held meetings pertaining to his methylamphetamine business outside of his two sons’ Highgate primary school. The principal of the school reportedly gave evidence during the trial.
While both Quaid and Zanon maintained their innocence throughout the trial, Judge Goetze claimed he recently received a letter from Quaid in which the trafficker said he felt remorse for his actions and would “never get involved with anything of this kind again, even if I was released tomorrow”.
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Earlier this month, New South Wales police superintendent Mark Walton highlighted what he believed was a link between music festivals, particularly those focused on electronic music, and drug use, warning punters of the dangers of consuming drugs like ecstasy.
“I’m concerned that these electronic music events are consistently intimately associated with illicit psychoactive drug use,” he said. “It does not matter what location they are held in, there is no doubt the nature of the entertainment is intrinsically linked to that drug use.”
Superintendent Walton’s statement came in the wake of the death of 19-year-old Harbourlife reveller Georgina Bartter, whose death is suspected to have been caused by overdose or an allergic reaction to her alleged ingestion of one and a half pills during the event.
