Jasmine Bourne lived a “gangster” lifestyle: she sold drugs, had weapons and used threats to reclaim debts.
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The drug syndicate she ran sold more than three kilograms of ice in the Wangaratta and Albury areas over six months in 2016, worth as much as $872,000.
The fact Bourne, 28, was facing years in jail for her crimes should not have come as a surprise.
Back in 2014 she was a low-level drug trafficker working as part of Wangaratta’s previous drug syndicate.
Her then boss, Jessica Fogarty, is now serving a seven-year jail sentence.
Police say it was just three weeks after that sentence was handed down in court that Bourne’s own trafficking operation began out of her Creek View End home in Wangaratta.
She appeared in Shepparton County Court via video link on Tuesday to plead guilty to six changes including trafficking a commercial quantity of methamphetamine.
The syndicate was shut down in November 2016 when Bourne was arrested driving on the Hume Freeway near Violet Town in possession of 79.2g of ice and a pen pistol.
Crown prosecutor Max Perry said police tapped Bourne’s mobile phone and listened as she organised drug sales and planned “run throughs” to reclaim clients’ debts.
Recorded conversations included Bourne saying “if they want to play games, I’ll play f---ing games … It’s a lot of money that they owe”.
“This is significant, high-end trafficking over a significant period of time,” Mr Perry said.
“It’s got all the pertinence of professionalism with numerous people and numerous phones.”
Barrister Matthew Page said Bourne took responsibility for being “top of the tree”, but could not say where all the money earned from her drug sales went.
Judge John Smallwood said he would hand down a “significant custodial sentence” to Bourne when the case returned to court this week.
“This is gangster stuff,” he said.
“This isn't a ‘I’m trafficking because I’m using’ situation, this is out-of-control business involving guns and shootings.”
Co-offender Kyle Batten, 29, was sentenced to 2.5 years in jail for trafficking methamphetamine and firing a sawn-off shotgun into a parked car at 3.30am as a warning to a person hassling his sister.
Phillip Towns, 41, also received a 12-month jail sentence and Kieren Heather, 23, received 21 months for his role in trafficking the drugs in the Albury area.
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