Samuel Donald Ford: Mount Barker dad jailed for trafficking more than $50,000 worth of methamphetamine

A Mt Barker father with a “significant record” has been jailed and declared a drug trafficker after he was caught by police with 107.3g of 80 per cent pure methamphetamine worth $50,000. Samuel Donald Ford, 29, was sentenced in Albany District Court on Monday on one charge of possession of a prohibited drug with intent to sell or supply which he pleaded guilty to on March 28. The maximum jail term for the charge is life imprisonment. Ford was caught on December 21, 2023, by police who were trying to intercept him when they saw a passenger in the vehicle Ford was driving throw a Ryobi battery pack out of a window. The battery pack, which was located by police, contained two clip seal bags holding a combined amount of 107.3g of methamphetamine at 80 per cent purity and worth more than $50,000. Ford was also located with multiple mobile phones and SIM cards and a DNA analysis of the clip seal bags found by police linked the bags to Ford. A search of Ford’s home in Mt Barker also uncovered digital scales, clip seal bags and four battery cells identical to the battery pack tossed out the window. Ford’s defence lawyer Zarah Burgess submitted to the court that her client did intend to sell a portion of the methamphetamine to fund his own drug misuse, and use the rest of the methamphetamine himself. Ford was sentenced in 2019 for conspiring to defeat the course of justice and has spent time in prison for grievous bodily harm. A pre-sentence report stated Ford began experiencing seizures after being arrested in December but has not received any formal diagnosis and a neuropsychological report was refused. Ford has self-diagnosed himself with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and is self-mediated — a move that Chief Judge Julie Wager said was “concerning”. “You consider that your inability to focus though and your bad decision-making could be dealt with if you did receive the proper prescribed medication,” she said. Judge Wager said the quantity of methamphetamine was “significant” and the set-up to house the drugs was “sophisticated”. She said Ford, a drug user for “many, many years” needed to either put illicit drugs behind him or face a life in prison. “So now at 29, it’s something that you must put behind you, or basically you are going to spend the rest of your life in custody or close to it,” she said. Ford was sentenced to three years and seven months imprisonment, backdated to December 22, and was made eligible for parole.