An English national who admitted supplying cannabis to fund his own addiction will be sentenced in the Queenstown District Court next month.
In court yesterday, Louis James Crabbe (20) admitted two charges of possessing the class C-controlled drug for supply between March 16 and August 4; and between June 2 and July 25; and one charge of offering to supply cannabis between March 16 and August 4.
Defence counsel Sonia Vidal said Crabbe, the man ''at the bottom of the chain'', had been ''naive'' and was remorseful.
Two other defendants had also been charged in relation to the offending.
Prosecuting Sergeant Ian Collin said it had become a ''common trend'' for drug dealers to sell substances from private residences, predominantly arranging sales via text message.
In July, Queenstown police began a drug operation targeting local drug dealers within the Queenstown area. Crabbe was identified and targeted and his cellphone number recorded.
A component of the operation was intercepting text messages to monitor drug-dealing activity, which led to the identification of the other two defendants, Sgt Collin said.
Each defendant had a defined role and all stood to benefit financially. The first defendant would source the cannabis from an unknown supplier and supply 28g of the drug to the second defendant in ounce deals.
That defendant would then supply the cannabis to Crabbe for a profit.
Sgt Collin said Crabbe divided the cannabis into $50 deals, containing about 2.5g of cannabis and arranged sales via text.
Between June 2 and July 25 the trio arranged drug deals 23 times, totalling 43oz of cannabis.
Crabbe would commonly pay $380 for one ounce, $720 for two and $1100 for three.
He would make between $75 and $200 an ounce, depending on the quality and quantity of the cannabis sold.
Sgt Collin said Crabbe could have made up to $8600 on the 43oz purchased.
''The [text] messages also indicated that the defendants were all aware that there was a shortage of cannabis available in Queenstown and Crabbe had buyers ready and waiting to purchase cannabis from him as soon as he received it from the other defendants.
''The messages indicated that the exchange of ounces of cannabis between the defendants occurred at night, either in the public toilet, mall, gym or in the street.
''There would be occasions where Crabbe would be contacting the second defendant within two hours of one of these exchanges, telling him he had sold everything, was cashed up and needed more ounces due to high demand.''
Between March 16 and August 4 Crabbe offered to sell cannabis 342 times and completed a large number of sales in various weights.
When spoken to by police, he admitted the facts and said he only ever intended selling cannabis to cover a ''small personal loan'' and it was never his intention to ''get this carried away''.
Judge Tom Broadmore convicted Crabbe and remanded him on bail for sentencing on October 6.
He ordered a pre-sentence report with appendices to address community and home detention options.
