WANTED man Dylan Blake has been arrested in Melbourne and released from custody to attend drug rehabilitation.
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Mr Blake, 23, of Brown Street, Allansford, was wanted on nine warrants of apprehension after failing to attend at the Warrnambool Magistrates Court in January.
He handed himself in to Heidelberg police last week and was released on bail by a bail justice to attend the Heidelberg Magistrates Court on August 16.
Mr Blake is currently attending drug rehabilitation facility Odyssey House in Melbourne as part of his strict bail conditions.
Detective Acting Sergeant Nick de Ridder, of the Warrnambool police Crime Investigation Unit, called for public information to help arrest Mr Blake in mid March this year.
Mr Blake was facing charges of trafficking methyl amphetamine and ecstasy and has prior convictions for similar offences.
Soon after that request, Mr Blake's mother Rachael Taylor made a heartfelt public plea for her son to come home.
In a tragic tale, she said her son had been on a successful career path before succumbing to ice.
She called for a residential rehabilitation service in the south-west to help treat people with drug addiction.
“He was a second year apprentice at a restaurant, he had a beautiful partner and a young child,” she said.
“They had hopes for a big future. Most of all I wanted my son to be happy, truly happy.
“Then that began to change, somewhat slowly, then rapidly, as ice began to infiltrate our lives," she said.
During the past 18 months Ms Taylor watched as her son’s life spiralled out of control.
“When your child has dived off a cliff, free-falling head first into a lifestyle you cannot influence any longer, that you cannot save them from, heartache begins to set in,” she said.
“As you watch the slow decline – the slightening of their frame, the darkening of the eyes, a change in the pallor of their skin – a sinking feeling begins beneath a parent’s skin.”
“I wish for a life without ice,” she said.
Ms Taylor said she was not ashamed to talk about her son’s addiction, an addiction which did not discriminate – anyone could be affected, from young people to middle-aged professionals.
“If I stand up and fight for him it might show him that he’s worth it," she said.
Mr Blake was given his last chance to comply with a community corrections order in September last year after pleading guilty in Warrnambool Court to refusing to undertake a drug driver test and failing to comply with a corrections order.
Magistrate Pete Mellas said Mr Blake had not complied with a community corrections order, refused to turn up for appointments and not completed community work.
He said Mr Blake was “fooling himself”, he still had a drug problem and if he did not comply with the order he would spend time in jail.
Mr Blake said he was in the top 100 for a bed at Odyssey House and there were 10,000 people trying to get into drug rehabilitation.