An Altona North ice dealer found with $43,000 in cash, methylamphetamine, drug lab equipment and firearms had his sentence reduced this month because he confessed to selling drugs.
Rosario Latina, 46, had his jail term cut, from six and a half years to five years with a non-parole period of two years and nine months, on appeal to the Supreme Court.
He pleaded guilty to 15 charges, some of which carried a maximum penalty of 15 years, including drug trafficking, possessing substances and equipment used for drug manufacturing and having unregistered long-arms and property suspected of being the proceeds of crime.
Police raided Latina’s Begonia Avenue home in March 2013, where they found 768.5 grams of methylamphetamine mixed with a cutting agent, of which 15 grams was pure methylamphetamine.
Investigators found more than $9000 in jacket pockets in Latina’s bedroom and nearly $34,000 in two vacuum-sealed bags hidden behind kitchen drawers.
They also found a samurai sword, a handmade taser device and an imitation firearm. There was equipment and substances for a drug lab in a back shed and a large amount of stolen property.
The next day, police searched a storage shed on Geelong Road, Brooklyn, where they found firearms, ammunition, gunpowder, a crossbow, stolen property and chemicals and equipment for manufacturing methylamphetamine.
Faced with this evidence, Latina told police he had been selling drugs from his home for about 13 months, saying he made $300-$1000 a day.
He told police he had never attempted to manufacture drugs and had not touched the “stuff” found in his shed for two or three years. He said the equipment and substances found in the Brooklyn facility had been given to him for storage purposes.
Latina appealed his sentence on the grounds that had it not been for his confession, the gravity of his offending would not have been established.
Justices Robert Redlich and John Kyrou agreed that Latina was entitled to considerable leniency because of his confession.
