Man sentenced to jail for selling cannabis gummies to Canberra schoolchildren, trading in illegal vapes
A former Vietnamese student has been sentenced to a year in jail for peddling cannabis gummies and vapes to Canberra school children, some of whom paid by bank transfers listed as "drugs", "green", "jelly wobbles", and "thanks".
Phuc Tran, 24, was arrested after police were told a 15-year-old student at a Canberra high school had become ill after eating cannabis-laced gummies.
It emerged the gummies had been originally sold to a 12-year-old, who said she bought them from Tran in person.
She said she had paid $40 for two marijuana cookies, and $60 for a packet containing 15 to 20 gummies, which were green and purple and in the shape of a marijuana leaf.
The girl told police she ate some of the gummies and cookies, and stated they did not taste very nice and they made her fall asleep.
The 12-year-old denied giving any to the student who fell ill.
Tran had already been in the police sights, being caught with 250 illegal vapes in a car during a police stop in 2023.
Then last year, before police knew about the school incident, he was stopped again and officers reported a smell of cannabis emerged from the car he was in.
A search revealed 149 vapes, cannabis in bags in the centre console and glove box, suboxone strips, and $4,000 in cash.
Police said while they were searching the car Tran received a text message asking "What budz you got", and another message about the vapes.
Tran was initially arrested, but then freed while police searched his phone.
The search revealed dozens of transactions of between $45 and $55, which the court heard is the street price for vapes.
When police began to check the account holders they discovered many were children.
A total of 14 statements were obtained from young people, many of whom had contacted Tran over Snapchat on a handle known as "no names" to buy vapes, cannabis and gummies.
Police later gave the phone back to Tran and began following him, tracking his movements before his final arrest in the wake of the school incident.
Police then searched a house linked to the crimes, finding cannabis plants in grow tents, racks of gummies, cookies and brownies, gummy-bear-shaped silicone cooking moulds, and more than 600 vapes.
Eventually he pleaded guilty to 12 charges, including supplying drugs to a child, drug trafficking and possessing both drugs and vapes.
He is the first person in the ACT to be prosecuted under new commonwealth laws banning the sale of vapes, except through pharmacies.
Tran said his motive was to address a cash flow problem.
His student visa has now run out.
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