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Nicholas O’Connell just needed something to help him get by when a bad epilepsy attack forced him out of work and played havoc with his mental health. Ice solved both his money and happiness problems, but only for a short time. The dealer known as Shrek will spend the next three months in jail for his role in selling about $35,000 worth of the drug ice in Wangaratta. Investigators ranked O’Connell, 27, at the lower end of almost 60 dealers whose syndicate crashed down after raids across Wangaratta in September 2014. The boss, Jessica Fogarty, sits in custody awaiting sentence for overseeing millions of dollars worth of sales and violent intimidation. When the syndicate started to fall apart near the end, she counted O’Connell as one of the few people she could still trust. “It is sad when I look through my phone book because there is like five or less I’d even bother talking to anyway,” Fogarty said to O’Connell in a phone conversation intercepted by police. O’Connell’s job was a street-level dealer. He pleaded guilty to charges of trafficking methampehtemine, handling stolen goods and possessing proceeds of crime. Solicitor Mario Vaccaro said his client had gone back to work and sought medical help since his arrest. “He was using that money to support his own habit, but also for living expenses,” he said. Magistrate Ian Watkins said he needed to send a strong message because this was O’Connell’s second trafficking offence. He ordered O’Connell complete a 12-month corrections order, including 100 hours of unpaid work, on his release from jail. “You played an active role in the spread of methamphetamine around the town,” he said.

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