A Berkeley man who supplied drugs to fund his own addiction will be eligible for parole in January next year after police discovered he was selling meth via Facebook's messenger app.
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Adrian Mauricio, aged 29, was sentenced in Wollongong Local Court last week to a 12-month prison term.
Magistrate Jillian Kiely backdated the sentence to June 7, when he was taken into custody, and imposed a non-parole period of seven months.
Documents tendered to the court reveal Mauricio came under police notice by chance when officers spotted him and his partner at a service station in Corrimal on the evening of May 29.
Police conducted checks on their internal database which revealed Mauricio's partner was on an intensive corrections order that had a condition banning her from being in Mauricio's company.
After he left the petrol station, officers stopped to talk to Mauricio, who appeared "nervous" before he was searched. Meanwhile other officers pulled his partner over on the Princes Highway.
She initially denied being at the service station with Mauricio but then admitted she had been there with him, but claimed they weren't doing anything wrong.
Officers searched the vehicle, discovering $1750 in the woman's purse, which she allegedly claimed was money she'd saved over time from her fortnightly Centrelink payments.
They also found a mobile phone which contained Mauricio's Facebook account, which was active and receiving incoming messages.
Police seized the device, allowed the woman to leave the scene, and returned to the station where they began analysing the phone.
Officers recorded an "extensive amount" of drug-related messages, and also discovered photographs of packaged drugs, cash, drug paraphernalia and drug ledgers.
In one message, Mauricio contacted a client to complain the meth he'd picked up recently was "too petroly" and said he could supply the man with 28g once his dealer "changed batches".
On another occasion, Mauricio discussed the current "hectic price" of meth with another client while agreeing to supply him with 1.75g.
Later, he told a third customer he had a "cracker" batch available and said he could supply a "ball" of ice (3.5g) for $1000.
"Everyone else's balls are $1200," he boasted regarding his low prices.
Mauricio was arrested on June 7, during a vehicle stop at Koonawarra. Police found him with a mobile phone, $200 in cash and two sets of Bluetooth headphones still sealed in their boxes, which they suspected had been unlawfully obtained.
Mauricio was taken to Wollongong Police Station, charged and remanded in custody. He later pleaded guilty to supplying drugs, dealing with the proceeds of crime and having suspected stolen goods.
In court on Friday, Magistrate Kiely took into account Mauricio's history of substance abuse, which started at aged 20, and the "unsophisticated" way he sold 'ice'.
She noted he sold the drugs to fund his own drug use and took into account Mauricio's attempts to get clean and was optimistic he could stop taking drugs.
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