A Berkeley hairdresser will spend at least another year behind bars after her involvement in a large-scale meth and heroin drug supply ring.
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Suzanna Ristevska, 42, fronted Wollongong District Court by video link from Dillwynia women's jail on Monday after pleading guilty to six crimes stemming from a drug syndicate operating between the Illawarra and Sydney.
Ristevska was arrested in July last year after phone taps and other surveillance methods revealed she sourced drugs from two upline suppliers in Sydney, which she on-supplied from her address for profit.
Documents tendered to court revealed Ristevska and an alleged associate also used her home to store large quantities of the drugs between May 20 and July 17, 2021.
About 6pm on July 17 last year, Ristevska was arrested as part of Strike Force Mote after police watched alleged associates driving a white Toyota Hilux back to her Berkeley home.
Officers raided the property, uncovering meth, heroin and $28245 in cash - along with digital scales, resealable plastic bags, freezer bags, a pipe and several mobile phones, court documents say.
A few days later after police seized the Hilux, they found a remote control in the ute which opened a hidden compartment of the dashboard.
Inside, they found meth, with a purity level of about 74 per cent, and heroin.
Phone taps revealed Ristevska was not aware the drugs were inside the Hilux when it was at the holding yard.
"It's not there ... I'm stressing so hard right now man," she said to an alleged associate.
Court documents state Ristevska was granted conditional bail at Wollongong Local Court on July 29 last year, but she was arrested again in September where she was slapped with extra charges.
In a sentencing assessment report tendered to the court, Ristevska had an "extensive poly substance addiction" with "daily use of heroin and ice" at the time of offending.
The sole focus of offending was to support her drug dependency, the report said.
The court heard Ristevska pleaded guilty to supplying 41.76 grams of heroin, supplying 496.44 grams of methamphetamine, knowingly dealing with the proceeds of a crime, participating in a criminal group, organising a drug premises, and possessing a prohibited weapon without a permit.
Judge Andrew Haesler handed Ristevska a three-year and nine-month full-time prison sentence, backdated to August 28, 2021, with a non-parole period of two years.
Ristevska waved to her supporters in the court room after the sentence was delivered.
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Grace Crivellaro
Court reporter for the Illawarra Mercury.
Court reporter for the Illawarra Mercury.
