Kurtis Dennis Brennan: Geraldton meth trafficker jailed for six years after using desperate mum as courier

A Geraldton man — already a declared drug trafficker — has been jailed for more than six years after giving a desperate mother a wad of cash to bring him almost 70g of meth, which police discovered in a vacuum cleaner. Kurtis Dennis Brennan, 28, was sentenced in the Geraldton District Court on Monday for attempted possession of a trafficable quantity of methamphetamine with intent to sell or supply and possession of methamphetamine with intent to sell or supply. The court was told about 11.30pm on November 23, 2022 Lucy Perestrelo, then 43, was driving a Subaru Outback north on Indian Ocean Drive in Wilbinga when she was stopped by police. Police located a bong on the floor in the back seat, a smoking pipe on the front seat, a tick list inside a bag on the front passenger seat and several items in the car boot, including a vacuum cleaner containing a pink coloured purse with 69.1g of 80 per cent pure methamphetamine. The court was told Brennan gave Perestrelo $23,000 cash in a Geraldton carpark to buy the drugs and bring them back to him. Perestrelo had made admissions to police she was acting as a drugs courier in exchange for $2000 because she “needed to put food on the table for the children” and had turned to drug dealing to make ends meet. In a recorded interview, Brennan said Perestrelo was a former partner who “pretty much begged” for the money and that they both would get an (eight) ball from the transaction. In June, Perestrelo was sentenced to four years jail and was declared a drug trafficker. But Brennan was already an official drug trafficker at the time of the vacuum bust and just days later when he attended Greenough Regional Prison on December 4, 2022 with a black pouch containing 6g of meth down his pants to bring to a friend as a “treat”. When questioned by police he said: “Well, if you’re going to do a long time and a brother picks you up, you think you’re going to have a good time, aren’t you?” In sentencing on Monday, Judge Carmel Barbagallo said Brennan contributed to the scourge of drug addiction ravaging the community and considered him a middle-level drug dealer and a “middleman”. “It is a truly insidious drug and you are part of that problem. Don’t think that you are not. You only need to look at how this drug has affected your life and how it is about to affect your life today,” she said. “The idea that you’re helping out a mate by giving him methylamphetamine on his release from prison has got to be one of the more ridiculous things I’ve ever heard.” Brennan was sentenced to six years and two months jail backdated to December 3, 2022. He will be eligible for parole after serving four years and two months.