Two men involved in a large-scale methamphetamine lab discovered near Braidwood in New South Wales, at the height of the Black Summer bushfires, will have to wait until Monday to learn their fate, after a judge said she was struggling to accept an argument from the defence.
Luke Drever, 40, and Kevin Reilly, 41, both appeared in Queanbeyan Local Court via video link today, having pleaded guilty to the charges.
Police found 45 litres of methylamphetamine oil and a large laboratory spread over several sheds.
Lawyers representing Drever, a qualified chemical engineer, told the court he was forced to work in the laboratory to repay a past debt to people who had protected him during a previous stint in prison.
The court heard Drever served time in a South Australian prison until 2013, where prisoners learnt he was a chemical engineer and was capable of cooking methamphetamine.
But his lawyer, Kieran Ginges, said it was not until 2015, at a shopping centre, that his client ran into his former inmates again, and contact was re-established.
Mr Ginges said Drever was then threatened in 2018, receiving some threats so serious that he was unwilling to provide key evidence to the court due to fears for his own safety.
Ultimately, Justice Robyn Tupman said she struggled to accept that as being a reason for Drever's involvement in the methamphetamine laboratory.
"I mean, really, do you expect me to accept that?" she questioned.
Justice Tupman suggested that the names of four people provided to the court had no evidence of showing threatening behaviour towards Drever.
"These are four people who are talking ... about putting up a shed," she said.
"There's absolutely nothing in these intercepted calls."
Mr Ginges said his client essentially acted as a "FIFO cook", whereby he flew into Canberra to cook methamphetamine at the property across the border in NSW, and was paid $40,000 to do so.
He suggested his client used a false identity document to enter the ACT to avoid being detected by police due to a previous jail sentence.
The court heard the street value of the methamphetamine cooked by Drevers ranged in value from anywhere between $4 million to $61 million.
Lawyers for Drevers conceded he played a significant role in the manufacturing of the illegal substance.
"My client … was the person who was vital to making that quantity of drugs."
Justice Tupman said while she was not convinced Drever was acting out of fear of retribution, she questioned whether he was returning to a lifestyle he knew to make money and questioned whether he was enticed by a "glorified" lifestyle of selling drugs.
"There's been a whole television series based on that lifestyle," she said.
"I refuse to watch it."
The pair will be sentenced on Monday.
