Man found with $2M worth of ice in car boot ran supply operation like a 'business'

Rodney Grills was caught with 2.4kg of methamphetamine in the boot of his car at Farley.

A PROLIFIC drug dealer who ran his supply operation like a "business" and was found with $2 million worth of ice in the boot of his BMW will spend most of the rest of the decade behind bars.

Rodney Grills, 41, was on Thursday jailed for a maximum of seven years and eight months, with a non-parole period of five years and four months after he pleaded guilty to supplying quantities of methamphetamine and cocaine to customers across the Hunter and Central Coast between April and August last year.

The sentence means Grills, who has now been convicted of supplying drugs five times and was twice "extended leniency" by the courts and given intensive corrections orders, will not be eligible for parole until July, 2029.

Defence barrister Chris Micali claimed on Wednesday that despite the large quantities he was dealing in that Grills was just a middleman, an employee to a supplier up the line and any financial reward was used to either feed his own addiction or "stave off the impact" of a significant drug debt he owed.

But Judge Ian Bourke, SC, found it was evident from the telephone intercepts that Grills' role in the operation involved a "high degree of autonomy" and he was essentially running the drug supply operation like a "business".

"He was actively involved in sourcing drugs from different suppliers and assessing the quality of those drugs," Judge Bourke said. "He also was directly involved in negotiations over prices and quantities and engaged directly in the presentation and packaging of the drugs. "Also, the quantities of drugs involved in the supplies were fairly substantial and this, combined with the quantity of methamphetamine found in the boot of the BMW, supports the conclusion that he was an up-line supplier to other suppliers."

Judge Bourke did find that Grills was partially motivated by the desire to wipe a significant drug debt, which the court heard was at least $156,000.

As the Newcastle Herald reported in July, police had been tracking his movements and listening to his every conversation for months and on August 14, 2023 had heard Grills planning the "dead drop" drug pickup at Mascot and then later talking about the "two and a half kilo" in his boot.

Grills thought he had been careful, switching cars in case the police were following him.

He had even boasted a week earlier that he had "never been pinched coming home from Sydney".

But that streak was about to come to an end.

Grills got back on the M1 and headed north towards Farley, but he wouldn't make it home.

When police stopped him, they searched the boot and found three large vacuum sealed bags containing a total of 2.4 kilograms of methamphetamine with a purity of about 80 per cent.

On Wednesday, the court heard the drugs had a potential wholesale value of between $325,000 and $487,000 and a potential street value of $750,000 and $2 million.

And that wasn't all, before the massive haul of meth in the boot, police had been building a case against Grills, watching and listening as he supplied quantities of ice and cocaine over a five-month period.

He had also made another trip to Sydney on August 4 when he delivered half a kilogram of cocaine and $21,000 to an unknown person, the drugs and cash wiping a total of $150,000 off a debt he owed.

Two other people, a man and woman involved in the two major supplies in Sydney, will be sentenced at a later date.