A trial for a woman who had denied selling large quantities of "ice" from her Howlong home has been abandoned just as the case was ready to proceed in the District Court.
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That came with Crystal Lamont's decision to instead plead guilty to several serious drug charges, including supplying 176.55 grams of methamphetamine on an ongoing basis.
Lamont has been in jail, bail refused, ever since her arrest during a police raid on her Clarke Street home on August 15, 2019.
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There she will remain while she awaits sentence in the same court, before Judge Sean Grant, on October 20.
The 37-year-old's decision to not have the matter proceed in a judge-only trial followed ongoing negotiations between the Crown and her defence.
In Albury Local Court in March, a woman described as a lesser player in the Howlong drug syndicate, Melbourne mother-of-four Narelle Crumpton, was jailed for two years.
That was after she pleaded guilty to three counts of supplying a prohibited drug at greater than an indictable quantity but less than a commercial quantity, and two counts of taking part in the supply of a prohibited drug.
In addition to the ongoing supply charge, Lamont pleaded guilty to three counts of supply a prohibited drug, namely 56 grams of cannabis, 18 grams of methamphetamine and 6.76 grams of MDMA or ecstasy found in her home.
She pleaded not guilty to supplying a prohibited drug, namely ephedrine, in an amount that was not less than a commercial quantity.
Twenty-two of the charges she faced were back-up counts of supplying a prohibited drug, to the main charge of ongoing supply.
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Lamont, wearing prison greens and with her now mousy-brown hair pulled back tightly in a ponytail, made no comment during the brief proceedings.
In an agreed set of facts put before Judge Grant, the court was told how the Albury police drug unit established Strike Force Reichert to investigate illicit drug supply in Howlong.
Mobile telephone intercepts revealed Lamont's involvement in the ongoing supply of methamphetamine between June 18 and July 16, 2019.
The 176.55 grams of "ice" was supplied in 11 transactions, with Lamont having bought the drug "from time-to-time" from Crumpton.
When police raided her home, which she shared with another co-accused, her partner, Armin Fejziz, and their children, police also seized two Tasers bought online from China for $15, several mobile phones, a small set of scales and the quantities of methamphetamine, cannabis and MDMA.
