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An aspiring real estate agent has been found guilty of drug charges for concealing meth in curry boxes and supplying the drugs on the dark web.
Real estate agent trainee, Harpreet Flora, appeared in Penrith Local Court last week for sentencing, after pleading guilty to two counts of supplying prohibited drugs earlier in June.
Flora’s sentencing comes more than a year after being arrested for his role in an online drug syndicate that sold methamphetamine hidden in curry boxes in exchange for cryptocurrency and cash.
The investigation into Flora and two other men, Mathurshan Sangarathasan and Mayuran Devakumar, spanned between October 2023 and April 2024.
At the time, the NSW Cybercrime Squad detectives went undercover and bought 11 online drug orders worth over $9,000 in cryptocurrency.
Flora and Sangarathasan then allegedly posted the drugs concealed in chicken and fish curry packages multiple times, containing between 13 grams and 27 grams of methamphetamine.
According to the Daily Telegraph, despite Flora’s earlier full admission to supplying drugs without financial contribution, his lawyer told the court that Flora was only spending time with the two other arrestees because they had businesses together.
The three men had started a digital marketing agency and a real estate buyer’s agency together.
The court was also told that Flora was pursuing tertiary studies and posed a low risk of reoffending, with his lawyers seeking a non-custodial sentence, a request that Magistrate Fiona Toose quickly dismissed.
Toose told Flora that any sentence short of imprisonment would be “manifestly inadequate”.
The magistrate also pointed out that Flora was not eligible to work as a real estate agent, and he should have thought about his real estate licence when he decided to commit the offence.
Additionally, the court heard that Flora maintained a dual life, presenting as devoted to his partner and family while adopting a different persona within the drug syndicate, where he knowingly associated with the group.
The Crown said that Flora’s actions were an escalation of prior offences, as he had already received two nine-month conditional release orders in April 2023 for drug possession.
Flora’s sentencing has been adjourned to 25 August.
Co-accused Sangarathasan, currently in custody, has pleaded guilty to supplying significant quantities of drugs and will be sentenced in October.
Devakumar, alleged as a primary syndicate member, faces 11 drug supply charges and remains before the courts. He has not entered any plea.
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