A JEWELLS man who operated a lucrative one-stop, commercial drug operation out of a self-contained shipping container says he began supplying large quantities of drugs after being robbed of a kilogram of cocaine and incurring a $200,000 debt.
Jayson Harker, now 32, was on Friday jailed for a maximum of 12 years in Newcastle District Court after he pleaded guilty to supplying varying quantities of MDMA, methamphetamine, cocaine, cannabis, GBL and acid, among other drugs.
Harker, who was represented by barrister Paul Rosser, QC, barrister Bill Hussey and solicitor Chris O'Brien, had pleaded guilty to two counts of supplying a large commercial quantity of GBL and MDMA, which carries a maximum of life in jail.
Harker said during a sentence hearing that he was given a kilogram of cocaine to sell as his first drug supply enterprise but had it stolen from him and was told he owed $200,000.
He began supplying large quantities of drugs to cover the debt, storing the drugs in a storage shed he was living in on a property at Jewells.
Harker said he paid off the debt about six months before his arrest in November, 2019, but by that stage he had become "stuck" in the lifestyle and continued supplying to feed his own significant drug habit.
Police, aware of intelligence reports about Harker supplying drugs, pulled his vehicle over in Jewells on November 9, 2019, and discovered his license was suspended. Harker, police observed, was "stuttering, avoiding eye-contact and shaking" while talking to them and admitted to using cannabis, cocaine and methamphetamine. Police searched his car and found a small quantity of GHB, a set of scales, cash and about 14 grams of methamphetamine.
When told about the methamphetamine, Harker said: "Oh this is a joke, am I being loaded up or something. "I'm just trying to remember who was in my car last."
Harker was arrested and taken to Belmont police station and the next day police searched the shipping container and a car parked on the premises at Jewells.
There they found a total of more than half a kilogram of methamphetamine, two kilograms of MDMA, more than three kilograms of cannabis leaf, more than six kilograms of liquid GBL, 600 grams of cannabis oil, smaller quantities of other drugs including cocaine, $37,000 in cash, ammunition and an unauthorised pistol.
Harker gave evidence on Friday, telling Judge Roy Ellis that since being granted bail he had become the first person to complete an intensive nine-month rehabilitation program and turned his life around. Harker was jailed for a maximum of 12 years, with a non-parole period of seven years and six months. He will be eligible for parole in November, 2027.
