Meth worth $1.5m buried under palm tree

Christopher Gakis, 31, a long-time member of the Rebels, was arrested after a raid on the property in Golden Bay in 2015 found the multimillion-dollar drug haul hidden near a swimming pool.

A District Court trial this year had heard how Gakis had organised for a close friend, Larry Bull, to bury the drugs at the semi-rural property.

The court heard that Gakis conducted some of those arrangements from a hospital bed, after injuring his ankle while clearing trees on the same property days earlier.

When police raided the property in March 2015, they found 160g of 67 per cent purity ice hidden in the ceiling behind a broken cornice in a walk-in wardrobe.

Outside, under a palm tree, officers dug up two cryovac bags containing 986g and 988g of methylamphetamine at 77 per cent purity, which police said at the time could be worth up to $1.5 million on the streets.

“Your criminal activities ... involved extensive planning, organisation and co-ordination over a period of time and while you were in hospital,” Judge Mark Herron said.

“Your actions while you were laid up in hospital reveal a determination and persistence to deal in a significant quantity of prohibited drugs.”

Gakis, who the court was told had been out of prison for only nine months before being arrested, was jailed for 14 1/2 years.

Bull was jailed for 11 years and four months.

After another operation last year, another Rebels member, Matthew Gibbs, 34, was charged and convicted of drug possession involving a cooler bag full of cannabis brought to his house by a friend in January 2016.

WA’s District Court was told Gibbs’ associate Coby Holland brought the drugs to his house.

Gibbs then took the drugs and handed them off to another Rebels bikie, Adam Falconer.

When police kicked in the front door of Falconer’s house, while his children were inside, they found 872g of marijuana partly packaged for sale.

“It seems that your addiction to drugs and your connection to the Rebel Outlaw Motorcycle Gang keep on getting the better of you,” Judge Anette Schoombee said as she jailed Gibbs for a total of 21 months.

“You really need to think carefully what are your priorities in life.”

‘Your addiction to drugs and your connection to the Rebel Outlaw Motorcycle Gang keep on getting the better of you.’