A former childcare worker who trafficked drugs through Snapchat has avoided going back to jail after she was caught with a glass pipe and cannabis.
Rachel Louise Strong fronted Brisbane Supreme Court on Thursday for breaching her suspended sentence conditions.
Strong had previously been given a suspended sentence of four years and six months in October 2022 after she’d been convicted of drug trafficking.
Strong had been advertising and selling drugs through Snapchat in 2021 and inadvertently added an undercover police officer to her customer list on the social media app.
When police later raided her Wynnum home in Brisbane they found a grow room with 17 cannabis plants.
Rachel Louise Strong (pictured) was sentenced to jail for trafficking drugs
In October 2022, Strong pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, supplying and possessing cocaine and MDMA, producing cannabis and possessing cannabis, cocaine, meth, MDMA, LSD and a Taser.
The court was told on Thursday that the breach of her suspended sentence came after she was found in possession of drugs and paraphernalia on October 14 and October 19, 2023.
Strong was returned to custody on October 19 last year and those offences were dealt with in the magistrates court. The court was told Strong was released on parole for her minor drug offending on March 15, 2024.
Justice Peter Davis ordered Strong’s parole release date for her drug trafficking suspended sentence to start again on Thursday.
He ordered Strong be released on parole from Thursday in order for her to be under supervision of the parole board while serving out the rest of her suspended sentence.
Ms Strong fronted Brisbane Supreme Court (pictured) on Thursday for breaching her suspended sentence conditions
Justice Davis said Strong had ‘taken steps’ at rehabilitation and was under a mental health plan through her time in jail since October 2023.
‘If you continue to involve yourself with drugs, you’ll be in and out of jail and your life will be ruined,’ Justice Davis said.
‘You have to come to grips with the fact you can’t have anything to do with drugs otherwise you’ll have a lot to do with the law.
‘It’s in your hands. When someone in a situation such as you who obviously has a drug habit, having you supervised in the community is better than extending the operational period.’
