It was an illicit deal in a carpark beside Scrivener Dam that began to unravel a drug supply ring eventually dismantled by undercover cops who smuggled ice from NSW to Canberra.
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Benjamin La Pavoux, 31, was among men charged after NSW Police authorised a cross-border covert operation to delve into the activities of Queanbeyan man Zlatko Mileski, 34, in July 2016.
An undercover police officer called the man and placed an order for two ounces of methylamphetamine for $10,000 the next month.
A couple of days after the phone call, the police officer collected Mileski at his Queanbeyan house before the man directed him to drive to the car park next to the dam at Yarralumla.
They pulled up beside a red car with a man inside. Mileski got out with the $10,000 the police officer gave him and went over to the car. He soon returned with a resealable bag with about 59 grams of ice and the pair drove back to Mileski's house.
The cop called Mileski again in September, ordering three ounces of methylamphetamine for $4750 an ounce.
He picked Mileski up from Hume the next day, when he was told they could only supply him with two ounces of the drug. He directed the police officer to a Mawson house where the cop counted out $9500 and handed it to Mileski.
Soon after, a red car pulled up, a man got out and he and Mileski went inside the house. Soon after, Mileski got back in the car with a plastic bag that contained about 57 grams of ice.
About a week later the undercover cop placed a third order, agreeing to pay $19,000 for four ounces of ice. The pair again drove to the dam carpark where a man in the same red car handed over about 113 grams of ice.
Police followed the red car to a Charnwood house, where they arrested La Pavoux and another man for drug trafficking.
Mileski pleaded guilty to supplying a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug in Queanbeyan Local Court and awaits sentencing.
His lawyer previously criticised the police operation as "fatally flawed" and said officers had "imported the drugs into NSW".
La Pavoux, 31, pleaded guilty in the ACT Magistrates Court to trafficking methylamphetamine and driving offences.
In sentencing La Pavoux in the Supreme Court, Acting Justice David Robinson noted he had been an ice user and previously sold small amounts to fund his habit.
A pre-sentence report author said he accepted responsibility for his actions and acknowledged the link between his drug habit and crimes. He had attended drug programs in prison.
"Mr Le Pavoux is [an] unemployed man with a significant criminal history of offences relating to driving dishonesty, possess prohibited substance, violence and breaching court orders," the report author said.
He had previously given evidence his offending was "an absolute embarrassment" and apologised, saying he had let down his family and community. He vowed he wouldn't offend again and said he struggled to mix with the prison population.
"In there it's – people perceive it as okay to commit crime and stuff like that and they talk about burgling people's houses and holding shops up and stuff like that and honestly it sickens me."
He had gone on to complete a residential drug rehabilitation program.
Acting Justice Robinson sentenced La Pavoux to two years and seven months imprisonment, taking into account time already spent in custody, to be suspended from this week with a good behaviour order for about a year.
