A Canberra father who trafficked ice and heroin has been sentenced to five years' jail after a judge found he sold the drugs for profit and not merely to fund his own habit.
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Lei Zhao, 40, pleaded guilty to four charges shortly before his ACT Supreme Court trial was set to start in August this year.
He was arrested after police phone intercepts and a tracking device fixed to his car revealed he had a hand in a string of drug deals between April and July in 2016.
Court documents said Zhao and his buyers often spoke in code, using the phrases "a beer", "half an hour" or "an hour" to refer to amounts of methylamphetamine, or ice.
One dealer told Zhao his customers "love this shit, it's f---ing good". He sold more than 665 grams of ice for about $6000 per 28 grams.
Police had searched a Page house rented by Zhao and his wife after they began investigating him for ice supply in October 2015.
They found partially cooked methylamphetamine in a saucepan on the stove and chemicals, cutting agent and drug paraphernalia in the kitchen.
Small amounts of ice and heroin had been stashed in drawers, cigarette packets and in plastic bags in a cupboard. Police seized about 359 grams of ice and 192 grams of heroin.
Zhao told a sentence hearing he bought the drugs in bulk so it was cheaper for himself and his friends and he had made little profit.
He said his parents in China had given him between $300,000 and $400,000 from 2012 to 2016. He had also worked as a plasterer.
In sentencing Zhao this week, Acting Justice David Robinson said he was "certainly a person above a street dealer but not a person who manufactured or imported the drugs".
"He himself purchased drugs in a syndicate where he was able to obtain those drugs at what he considered to be a good price because of his buying power."
He said Zhao, "out of enlightened self interest", played down in his evidence "his involvement with the actual scope of the drug enterprise". The offender also had a $1500 per week drug habit.
Acting Justice Robinson could not find how much Zhao profited from his drug dealing, noting he received money from his parents but had also gambled more than $50,000 over several years and had not appeared to lead a lavish lifestyle.
"I find beyond reasonable doubt that the offender was motivated by profit in selling the drugs and that it was not a case where the offender was selling drugs to finance merely his own drug taking."
He acknowledged Zhao had since given up drugs and made use of his time in prison by taking in part in employment skills training.
Zhao, who migrated to Australia from China more than a decade ago, had previously given evidence he couldn't bring himself to tell his daughters he was in jail.
"I made an agreement with my wife and told my children their father is working and he will be back home after he has finished his work."
When asked whether his choices had been worth the risk of imprisonment and affect on his family, he said:
"Honestly speaking, I was stupid."
Zhao will be eligible for parole in July 2019.
