Bunbury man Reagan Jay Wahi Ariki Read given extra six months behind bars for drug dealing, weapon possession

A 27-year-old Bunbury man, who used to have connections to a New Zealand-based outlaw gang, is set to spend at least another six months behind bars after being jailed for drug and weapon offences he committed while on bail for unrelated offending. Reagan Jay Wahi Ariki Read was sentenced to a 12-month jail term for offences including possessing cannabis with intent to sell or supply, 13 counts of offering to sell or supply cannabis to another person and various weapon possession charges. The court was told police conducted a drug and weapons search of Read’s home in Withers on the afternoon of June 17 last year where officers located and seized various items from the bedroom, rear shed and living room. Seized items included 671.23g of cannabis throughout Read’s bedroom, a shotgun that had its barrel sawn off, three cannabis seedlings, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, six smoking implements, nunchucks, two crossbows, two balaclavas and two jars of cannabis butter. Read’s mobile phone was also seized during the search with officers finding various messages sent several months prior that showed evidence of Read offering to sell varying quantities of cannabis to other people. The evening before the search, Read was pulled over in a random traffic stop and took a breath test that returned a blood alcohol reading of 0.102. After police officers noticed a “strong cannabis smell”, a search was conducted which uncovered a clip seal bag containing 0.38g of methamphetamine, an imitation handgun, a hunting knife and a bat. The court was also told Read was already a sentenced prisoner, serving a 10-month jail term for an unrelated conviction and was on bail for that offence at the time. In submissions, Read’s defence counsel Michael Joubert said his client had ceased using cannabis some months before police had conducted the search at his home and was ultimately trying to sell what he no longer wished to use to friends in a bid to “clean up his act”. It was also submitted the majority of the cannabis found in Read’s home was “not saleable”, comprising of “low-quality leaf and stem material”. Mr Joubert also submitted Read had connections to the New Zealand-based outlaw gang Mongrel Mob but had expressed an interest in leaving the group. While State prosecutor Craig Astill submitted Read’s drug business was unsophisticated, he told the court Read’s offending was aggravated by the presence of various weapons. Although Read’s cessation of cannabis use was a mitigating factor, District Court Judge Mara Barone agreed there was a degree of commerciality within Read’s drug dealing even though its set-up was not sophisticated. “You were prepared to distribute cannabis despite not using it yourself because you saw merit in selling it to other people,” she said. Along with the 12-month jail term, Read received fines totalling $2400 and had his driver’s licence disqualified for 10 months. Read was also declared a drug trafficker after receiving his third conviction of possessing a prohibited drug with intent to sell or supply within a 10-year period.