Heroin courier jailed for seven years

A ROMANIAN migrant, with little grasp of English, innocently supplied high-grade heroin to one of Queensland's most notorious drug traffickers at Ormeau, a court has been told. Nicolae Tufis, 53, was sentenced to seven years jail in the Supreme Court in Brisbane on Friday after pleading guilty to the possession and supply of 111g of heroin -- of 68 per cent purity -- which police found concealed in a camera case on July 7, 2010. (Foto: Nana Puscas de facto wife of Constantin Francisc “Frank” Onea -Fantomas)

He was at the Ormeau Hills home of a country-woman once dubbed the "Mrs Big of the drug world", Nana Puscas.

The 57-year-old was still on parole after being jailed for 20 years in 1994, alongside former de facto Frank Onea, for heroin trafficking.

She was released after five years' jail but piqued the interest of police again last year and was kept under covert surveillance for about six months before police arrested her and Tufis in the middle of a planned drug deal.

Police also located 325g of heroin and $140,000 cash in Pucas' bedroom.

At the time of their arrest, police claimed Tufis was her interstate dealer, however, at sentencing yesterday his lawyer Brendan Ryan told Justice Jean Dalton his client unwittingly got involved in the drug trade and was simply a courier.

Mr Ryan said Tufis moved to Australia from Romania in 2006 with his wife and two adult sons and settled in Sydney where he started a contract cleaning company.

He and his wife would commute hours each day cleaning mansions in the well-to-do eastern suburbs before a friend he met through the Romanian community in Sydney arranged for him to get a well-paying contract just metres from his home.

In return, the friend -- who he only got to know as Paul or Horse -- asked him to take a package to Puscas on the Gold Coast, supplied him a mobile phone and Tufis made the trip with an unknown quantity of the drug in June, 2010.

After he returned to Sydney -- and police phone surveillance had begun -- an angry Puscas called, demanding he return with better quality drug and he obliged, in an attempt to secure the lucrative cleaning contract, Mr Ryan said.

When he did, police pounced.

"He fully knew the risk he was undertaking," Mr Ryan said.

"He told police immediately he was guilty of the heroin because there was little else he could say at the time because of his poor English.

"He accepted what he was doing was wrong but also was unaware how grave the consequences would be and that he would end up in front of a Supreme Court judge."

Prosecutor Dejana Kovac said the quality of the drug was rarely seen and, cut in to four, one ounce quantities, would have a street value of about $60,000.

"It was certainly a drug of high purity,' she said.

Justice Dalton said Tufis' actions constituted a commercial, wholesale supply of unusually-high quality heroin.

"I accept what you have said in your letter that you express shame and embarrassment at your actions in light of your family and family values," she said.

Justice Dalton ordered he serves at least a third of his sentence behind bars, meaning he will be eligible for parole in November, 2012.

Puscas, who has plead guilty to fresh heroin trafficking, supply and possession charges, is expected to be sentenced early next year.

http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2011/12/18/374925_crime-and-court-news.html

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Coast 'Mrs Big' denied bail

A CONVICTED drug trafficker once dubbed the 'Mrs Big of the drug world' is back behind bars after being denied bail on fresh drug allegations.

Nana Puscas, 57, was arrested on Wednesday after a police raid netted almost half a kilogram of heroin at her Ormeau Road home.

Police also arrested 52-year-old Nicolae Tufis from NSW, who they allege was restocking her supplies.

Both suspects have been charged with trafficking, supplying and possessing a dangerous drug.

It was a similar scene to 16 years ago when Puscas was sentenced on drug charges.

In 1994 she was sentenced to a record 20-year jail term for trafficking heroin after a covert police operation nabbed her and defacto husband, Frank Onea.

The former Romanian refugees, who were dubbed the 'Mr and Mrs Bigs' of the state drug scene, were both jailed for selling 211g of pure heroin with a street value of almost $600,000.

Puscas pleaded guilty to the charges.

At Onea's trial the court was told the couple lived the high life on the Gold Coast, simultaneously running a Southport restaurant, The Blue Danube, and one of Queensland's biggest heroin drug operations.

Their world collapsed in September 1992 when they were arrested by police who were led to stashes of heroin buried in a Runaway Bay park.

Puscas was released after five years and has been on parole since, until her arrest on Wednesday.

Yesterday the court was told the raid on her Ormeau home came after six months of covert surveillance by local and state detectives in Operation Ice Allergy.

Police alleged Puscas was a known heroin trafficker in the region, with clients in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast, and that Tufis was her interstate supplier.

In the raid, police allegedly found 112.4g of heroin in a black camera case in Tufis's pocket and $140,000 in cash and 325.5g of heroin in Puscas's cupboard.

Police prosecutor Senior Constable Myee Arandale said Puscas volunteered the drugs' hiding spot when questioned by police.

The court was told Puscas admitted during a recorded interview that she had been supplying three regular customers and sourcing drugs from Tufis for six months.

Potts Lawyers solicitor Mark Williams sought bail for Puscas and Tufis and argued a prima facie case had not been established as the substances had yet to be tested.

His applications were strongly opposed by Sen-Constable Arandale who cited Puscas's history and parole breach.

Sen-Constable Arandale said both were an unacceptable risk of flight and reoffending if granted bail.

Magistrate Dean Wilkinson refused bail for both defendants and remanded them in custody until a committal hearing in Southport on February 7, 2011.

http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2010/07/09/236611_crime-and-court-news.html

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