Female drug baroness boasted about her Snapchat dealer network and 'schoolies deals' to clients - only to find out they were undercover cops
- Female drug overlord bragged to detectives about her illicit operation
- Young criminal failed to have severity of her sentence reduced on appeal
A young female drug baroness ran a 'sophisticated' network of more than 1000 Snapchat dealers and targeted teens with 'schoolies deals' while selling 'wholesale amounts' of MDMA, cocaine, LSD and cannabis.
Samantha Jane Newman was ordered to serve seven years in prison after pleading guilty to a string of serious drug charges in Brisbane Supreme Court earlier this year - and failed in her bid to appeal the severity of the sentence on Friday.
According to court documents obtained by the city's Courier Mail newspaper, the Queensland drug overlord ran the ring for about six months before she was arrested after boasting about her illicit activities to undercover cops.
As the detectives gained Newman's trust, the then 29-year-old bragged that about 70 per cent of her 1500 Snapchat friends were working for her as dealers and that she shifted between 113 grams and two kilograms of MDMA each week.
She also revealed she employed savvy advertising techniques to lure in young customers and insisted they send her photographic proof they could afford to pay for her drugs before she agreed to any deals.
The documents revealed the undercover cops, who were posing as customers, bought drugs off her five times before placing her under arrest in February 2022.
Drug baroness Samantha Jane Newman used a sophisticated network of Snapchat dealers and savvy advertising, including 'schoolies deals', to sell commercial amounts of narcotics
'(Newman) advertised her products to Snapchat friends on 54 occasions and supplied to law enforcement participants on five occasions,' the Court of Appeal decision obtained by the newspaper said.
'She advertised special sales, including "schoolies deals".
'She also advertised in a way to generate sales, such as advertising that if a customer purchased cannabis they would get a "free MDMA cap".
'She requested and required customers to take a picture of themselves and their cash, otherwise she would not agree to the drug transaction.
When police eventually raided her home, they found quantities of cocaine, MDMA, LSD tabs, and cannabis in aluminium pouches.
In seeking leave to appeal her sentence, Newman argued that duration of her prison sentence was manifestly excessive and that it should be cut by about two years.
Newman ran the ring for six months before boasting about her operation to undercover cops
But the three Court of Appeal judges who reviewed her case - Justice David Boddice, Justice Thomas Bradley, and Justice Peter Flanagan - rejected her plea on Friday.
In handing down their ruling, Justice David Boddice described Newman's network as having 'a degree of sophistication' with a set up resembling a 'businesslike model'.
'(Newman's) trafficking business was engaged over approximately six months, with a frequency of sales in the context of well-orchestrated advertising of that business,' he said.
'The trafficking was conducted as a commercial enterprise with the applicant being involved in all aspects of the business, including delivery of the goods.
'It was intense and involved multiple dangerous drugs, routinely advertised broadly through Snapchat, affording the applicant a wide customer base.
The drug lord has failed to have the severity of her Supreme Court sentence reduced
'While the applicant (Newman) did have a number of mitigating factors, the sentencing judge carefully considered those mitigating factors, while determining what was an appropriate sentence.
'The sentencing judge rightly found that notwithstanding those mitigating factors, the seriousness of the applicant's offending meant that denunciation and deterrence loomed large.
'The sentence imposed was not manifestly excessive.
'It was neither unreasonable nor unjust. I order that the application for leave to appeal against the sentence be refused.'
