Qld: Horse trainer and drug baron jailed for 18 years

AAP General News (Australia)
12-04-2003
Qld: Horse trainer and drug baron jailed for 18 years

By Suzanne Klotz

BRISBANE, Dec 4 AAP - A high-living racing identity who made his name supplying cough
and cold syrups for horses was jailed for 18 years today after being convicted on drug
charges.

Dennis James Lowe had a lavish lifestyle living in a waterfront mansion with seven
bathrooms and an indoor swimming pool on the Gold Coast, as well as a state of the art
horse stud at Beaudesert, south of Brisbane.

The lifestyle and the regular acquisition of thoroughbred horses at the Gold Coast's
annual Magic Millions sale was funded by massive methyl-amphetamine production secretly
conducted behind the front of a veterinary pharmaceutical company specialising in producing
equine cough and cold syrup.

The 32kg of drugs seized by police, which led to the charges, had an estimated street
value of almost $3 million and enough red phosphorous was found in the police raid to
produce 200kg of speed.

The actual amount of drugs manufactured and distributed nationally through Lowe was
ultimately unknowable, according to Detective Sergeant Andrew Massingham.

Det Massingham said Lowe used his old Melbourne painters and dockers connections to
distribute the drugs around the country.

"I believe (the arrest of Lowe) has made a huge dent down there (in Melbourne) in the
drug world," Set Sgt Massingham said outside court.

"There are further charges here and interstate to be brought as a result of these convictions."

Lowe, 53, of Sovereign Island, was found guilty by a Supreme Court jury last month
of 10 drug related charges including trafficking and producing between May 6, 1999 and
November 29, 2000.

Erik William Zagata, 39, was found guilty of two counts of producing drugs.

Zagata who was on a suspended sentence for fraud at the time of his involvement, was
the production manager at Lowe's front-company, Denlin Pty Ltd, at Loganholme on Brisbane's
southern outskirts.

Justice Ros Atkinson sentenced Lowe to 18 years jail, marking him a serious violent
offender to serve at least 80 per cent of his sentence before he is eligible to apply
for parole.

Zagata was jailed for five years and will also have to serve another two years after
breaching the conditions of his suspended sentence.

AAP smk/jhm/sco/jlw

KEYWORD: LOWE

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