A former police officer and under-20 NRL player who supplied drugs to friends during a football trip.
According to our wastewater, 5,675kg of cocaine was consumed in 2020, with much of the trafficked narcotics is coming in through our sea ports.
Cody Jace Maughan, 26, of Everton Hills, pleaded guilty in Brisbane District Court on Thursday to two counts of supplying dangerous drugs and one count of drug possession.
Police searched Maughan’s home in October 2021 after he was found in a Toowoomba nightclub with a rolled-up $50 note and his friend had cocaine on him.
Cody Maughan no longer works as a police officer after he was charged with supplying dangerous drugs. Picture: Dan Peled / NCA NewsWire
The court was told police found a packet of oxycodone with one tablet missing in the home. It had been prescribed to Maughan’s father-in-law.
Police also searched Maughan’s phone and found text messages with his brother and another person offering to supply cocaine to the men between September 2 and September 16, 2021.
One text message offered to supply Maughan’s brother with 3.5g of cocaine, which he intended to pay $1300 for, and 1g to the other man for an undisclosed amount.
The court was told the drugs were being supplied as part of a football trip to Toowoomba.
The former Cowboys under-20 player supplied cocaine to friends during a football trip. Picture: Dan Peled / NCA NewsWire
Maughan’s defence barrister, Gregory McGuire, told the court his client had been punished already for the drug supply after losing his job as a Queensland police officer.
The former officer had joined the police service in 2020 and is no longer employed in force.
He was suspended from official duty following an internal investigation after he was charged in March 2022.
“This fellow who was a young person at the time, even though he was a police officer, he was 24 (years old),” Mr McGuire said.
“He’s now lost two potential careers.”
Maughan was supported by family and friends. Picture: Dan Peled / NCA NewsWire
Before joining the police force, Maughan played with the Cowboys under-20 NRL team from 2015 to 2017 but was forced to stop playing professionally due to a fractured sternum that effectively ended his football career.
Mr McGuire said Maughan had never intended to sell the drugs for “commercial intent”.
“In that context, not only were they offers of supply rather than actual supply, they were attempts to obtain drugs for that trip,” he said.
“We all know the wrong attitude young people have to drugs like this and in some cases not so young.”
Judge John Allen ordered Maughan pay a $3000 fine for the drug offences within three months.
“The hypocrisy of a serving police officer involving himself in such offences is breathtaking,” Judge Allen said.
“You’ve suffered the consequences of that of course with the loss of a career in the police service.”
Judge Allen said Maughan hadn’t tried to gain financial advantage in the supply of the drugs.
“In the context of intent, it was to share those drugs and the cost of them but without the intention to gain a profit,” he said.
“They were not in the context of a user of that drug consistently dealing in that drug to fund their own habit or make a profit.”
No convictions were recorded.