A former South Australian police officer turned drug boss has been sentenced to 21 years in jail for trading drugs in what a court heard was a complex business run on the dark web.
Thomas James Booker, 28, was sentenced in the District Court for selling cocaine, cannabis, ecstasy and hallucinogens in online deals run from two Adelaide houses between February 2021 and November 2022.
Booker pleaded guilty to more than 50 offences including commercial drug trafficking and money laundering during a previous court appearance.
On Friday, Judge Geraldine Davison said Booker's offending would have attracted a 17-year jail term but considered that a "crushing sentence" given his prospects for rehabilitation.
It was discounted for his early guilty pleas to 15 years, with a 12-year non parole period, commencing in 2025.
Booker was also sentenced to six years in jail for Commonwealth offences, bringing his total sentence to 21 years.
The court ordered he serve a non-parole period of three years and two months for those offences before starting to serve the sentence for state offences from January 2025.
Booker worked as a police officer from 2014 to 2018 but resigned from SAPOL after a coronial inquest into the death of his wife.
She went missing in December 2018 after their honeymoon and was found dead in early 2019.
Booker provided evidence to the inquest of his drug use prompting a police internal investigation which ended upon his resignation.
The District Court heard Booker's co-accused, 25 year-old Ryan Jordan Suri-Tucker, had a lesser role in the drug trafficking and received a sentence at the lower end of the scale.
The court heard Booker had paid him $5,000 a month to run drug deals out of his grandparents' house in Adelaide.
He also assisted with the distribution of drugs to online customers.
Suri-Tucker's head sentence was reduced to five-years and 10 months for his early guilty pleas and for time served.
He will be eligible for parole after two-years and six months.
In sentencing, Judge Davison said the defendants engaged in complex and ongoing business of trading in drugs over the dark web and arranging the delivery of those drugs through the post.
Its effectiveness was evident by the seizure of $340,000 from a safe at Booker's house.
The safe also contained a key for a safety deposit box held by a trustee company in which police found $460,000.
