A Braybrook man caught with nearly half a kilogram of cocaine and and thousands in cash has been jailed and faces deportation.
Tung Thanh Nguyen, 30, pleaded guilty in the County Court to drugs charges and dealing with property suspected of being the proceeds of crime.
He was last month sentenced to three years and nine months with a minimum of two years and three months.
The Vietnamese national and his wife had rented a modern, double-storey home in Lawn Crescent, Braybrook, but Nguyen didn’t live there.
In January last year, police raided the house and found money, drugs and a hydraulic press.
As the property was being searched, Nguyen was driving past. He tried to evade police but was arrested.
Police found $120,7770 in his house and vehicle, $56,470 of which is suspected of being the proceeds of crime.
They also found 488.7 grams of cocaine.
Judge Anne Hassan said Nguyen had an entrenched “drug and gambling addiction”.
“You do not seem to have had any paid employment of any real note since arriving in Australia,” she said.
“You receive money from your mother regularly and you gamble in an attempt to generate an income.
“You also support yourself by your drug trafficking.
“At the time of your offending you were polysubstance dependent, using both cocaine and methamphetamine.
“You have gambled regularly since the age of 20, frequenting Crown casino.”
She told Nguyen he faced “the inevitable reality that you will be deported to Vietnam after the completion of a custodial sentence”.
