By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Hallam ‘middle-man’ who brokered meth and guns, including a home-made sub-machine gun, to two undercover police members has been jailed for at least six years.
Rajeev Singh, 29, trafficked more than 588 grams of predominantly ‘ice’ mixtures to the officers ‘Sammy’ and ‘Zac’ over six months in Hallam, Cranbourne North, Berwick, Clyde North and Melbourne.
The amount was 103 times beyond a commercial trafficable quantity, County Court of Victoria judge George Georgiou said in sentencing on 17 July.
Over the same time, Singh sold the agents what he called “toys” from a network of gun suppliers.
The weapons included a sawn-off double-barrel shotgun, another double-barrel shotgun, an assault rifle, a home-made sub-machine gun for $24,500 and an automatic pistol.
At the time, the former Eumemmerring Secondary College student was prohibited from having firearms.
He was on bail and two community corrections orders for drug, weapon, driving at dangerous speed and other offences.
On the day Singh received his second CCO in Dandenong Magistrates’ Court, he organised to sell further drugs and guns to a police operative.
It revealed Singh’s “low” regard for the law and its offers for him to rehabilitate, Judge Georgiou said.
The sting came to an end when Singh arranged to sell 500 grams of meth to an operative for $64,000 on 17 April 2018. The sale didn’t occur, his home was raided by police at 3.30am that day.
Singh met the first police operative ‘Sammy’ when they shared a cell at Narre Warren police station in October 2017.
From the outset, Singh claimed he trafficked a kilogram of ice every 1-2 days and could source rifles and handguns. He offered to sell $4800 of ice to Sammy.
The guns were difficult to obtain but there was “good money” in selling them, he told Sammy.
Singh told his ‘customers’ of his suppliers such as ‘Drew’, an ex-Comanchero in Berwick, and another called ‘Yuki’. He was close to these sources, Judge Georgiou found.
Singh later blamed the police operatives for pressuring him to escalate the deals – a claim rejected by the judge.
The accused was a “willing participant”, “talking up” his ability to supply meth and firearms from the start, Judge Georgiou said.
Singh had been careful ensuring the drugs and firearms were in his hands for only a short period of time.
On one occasion, a gun was produced from a horse float parked at the front of a Noble Park “safe house”.
He insisted on messaging the operatives on an encrypted social app Wickr where he spruiked photos of some of the firearms for sale.
During the court hearing, Singh, with a prior history of drug and weapon offences, was being remanded in protective prison. It was his first time in custody.
He claimed events in 2016 had escalated his drug addiction and offending.
That year, he had been shot in the abdomen during a drug deal, his arm was broken with a baseball bat by his girlfriend’s ex-partner, he broke up with his girlfriend and a close friend died in a drug overdose.
He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress and stimulant abuse disorder, but that didn’t mitigate his offending, the judge said.
Singh’s supportive, responsible family, and industrious work history were noted.
Judge Georgiou said Singh’s role wasn’t greatly different to Jacob Bentley, a “middle man” who was higher up in the drug supply chain.
This year, Bentley was jailed for up to five years in the Victorian County Court for his part in a $37,000 ice deal negotiated between Singh and ‘Zac’.
Singh pleaded guilty to several counts of trafficking meth including trafficking a commercial quantity of ice as well as five counts of possessing firearms as a prohibited person.
He was jailed for up to nine years and nine months, with a six-year non-parole period.
Singh had served 714 days in pre-sentence detention.
