A Sri Lankan former pharmacist has been jailed for his role in a dark web drug ring that delivered cocaine and meth disguised in curry boxes to customers in western Sydney.
Mathurshan Sangarathasan, 28, pleaded guilty to drug supply and was sentenced in Sydney District Court on Tuesday to 2.5 years’ jail with a non-parole period of 20 months, making him eligible for parole on December 3 with time served.
Sangarathasan has been in custody since being arrested in Bella Vista in April last year along with Mayuran Devakumar and Harpreet Flora, both 26, after undercover cops used $9,000 worth of cryptocurrency to buy drugs on a dark web marketplace 11 times from the syndicate, which operated from October 2023.
The court heard that Sangarathasan, who delivered 9.5g of cocaine and 426.58g of methamphetamine hidden in pepper chicken masala and fish masala curry boxes, had been promised 20% of the profits by Devakumar but was never paid, the Blacktown Advocate reported.
Sangarathasan claimed he desperately turned to selling drugs after taking out a $50,000 bank loan to invest in cryptocurrency to fund a court case when he failed to renew his pharmacist registration and was investigated by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency for working unregistered for two months.
The court heard he suffered from depression, and was also the primary carer for his mother, who was diagnosed with breast cancer four years ago.
“Life seemed to be going well but I fell into a period where I struggled mentally and financially,’’ he said.
“My mother was hit by her condition and my own anxieties were at their highest.’’
Judge Garry Neilson described the case as “very unusual”, as Sangarathasan was a “cleanskin” who was well-educated, had a good career, and never used drugs himself.
Sangarathasan wrote in a letter to the court that he had come to Australia from Sri Lanka at age seven and should have asked his family and the Tamil community for help instead of turning to crime.
“I have only now since coming to jail have only realised how much support I really had and I won’t waste that in the future,’’ he wrote.
“It was a stupid and completely wrong thing to do and I ended up further back than I’ve ever been – ruining my life, career, hard work and family sacrifices all in one go.’’
Cumberland Greens councillor Sujan Selvin also wrote Sangarathasan a character reference, saying: “He has always been a caring, giving and respectful young man, and this offence does not align with his character.”
In August Flora avoided jail completely for his role in the drug ring, which included posting boxes of curry with 40g of meth hidden inside.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of supplying an indictable amount of a prohibited drug and was given a 12-month intensive correction order, 60 hours of community service, and a $1,600 fine for breaching conditional release orders for drug possession in 2023.
Devakumar, who pleaded guilty in September, is yet to be sentenced.
Header image: Left, right, the curry box drug ring trio being arrested (NSW Police).
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