A FORMER Warrnambool woman found guilty of trafficking methamphetamine in the south-west last year had been “running rampant”, Warrnambool Magistrates Court was told yesterday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Senior Constable Patrick Lynch of Warrnambool police said Nicole Leanne Lockwood, 41, now of Gwendoline Drive, Berwick, had been arrested on November 8 last year for trafficking methamphetamine, or ‘ice’ as it is commonly known, because police had information she was “running rampant” and needed to be stopped.
Senior Constable Lynch said when Lockwood had voluntarily attended at Warrnambool police station on November 8, she was found in possession of a number of deal bags that contained remnants of ice.
He said that when police searched a room in a Warrnambool motel that had been occupied by Lockwood, they found 10 deal bags, each containing about .1 gram, otherwise known as a point, of ice.
They also found electronic scales and a number of empty deal bags.
He said he had also taken part in a police raid on a Terang address on August 9, last year, at which Lockwood and another person were apprehended.
Lockwood was found in possession of both ecstasy and ice at the time.
Witnesses also told the court they had obtained ice from Lockwood, one saying he got ice and amphetamine from her that he then helped sell in the south-west.
The witness said he went to Lockwood’s address at Crossley up to 40 times over a period of three months last year to pick up ice from her and return with the cash paid by customers for the drugs.
The witness said he had helped sell the drugs because he feared Lockwood.
Lockwood had told him she had connections with bikies and was not to be messed with, the witness said.
He said his involvement had left him in debt and he feared he owed money to bikies.
The witness said hr believed one consignment of ice from Lockwood that he had given to others to sell had gone missing deliberately in an effort to increase their debt and force them to become “drug mules”.
The witness said he had later been bashed unconscious by another person when a family member of Lockwood’s had been present. Another witness told the court she had received ice from Lockwood last year. The witness said she also knew of another person who was selling drugs for Lockwood.
Constable Peter Hunter, of Warrnambool police, told the court Lockwood had been stopped by police on the night of August 8, last year because she had been driving without headlights.
She had been found with seven deal bags containing under three grams of ice, full and empty syringes, a bag of cannabis, a tourniquet, spoons, a chopper and $1840 in cash.
Magistrate John Lesser said Lockwood had conceded she had trafficked in ice but the extent of her trafficking was being disputed. He remanded her until Friday for sentencing.