Jason Donnelly, 33, pleaded guilty to five charges in Ballarat Magistrates’ Court on 27 October 2026.[1] Defence lawyer Benjamin Yusupov applied for summary jurisdiction, which allows the matter to be heard in the magistrates’ court, and said Donnelly had an intellectual disability.[1] Magistrate Ronald Saines granted the application.[1] Saines said a significant message of deterrence and denunciation had to be imposed by a term of imprisonment.[1] The matter was adjourned for a plea and sentencing hearing on 14 December 2026.[1]
Investigators were confronted by an “extremely belligerent” mother during the raid in Mount Pleasant, where more than six kilograms of cannabis was seized from a drug trafficker’s bedroom, the court heard.[2] Police had found Donnelly slumped over the wheel of a parked car in Golden Point in the early hours of 21 May 2026.[1] A search of the car found $3,420 in cash and drugs including methamphetamine, ketamine, MDMA and cannabis.[1] He was then detained at Ballarat police station while officers organised a search of his Mount Pleasant home.[1] Police searched the house and found numerous bags of cannabis and $1,061.75 in cash in his bedroom.[1] A safe from the bedroom, forced open later, held cannabis, methamphetamine, MDMA capsules, ketamine, an imitation handgun and hundreds of dollars in cash.[1] The court heard the total cannabis seized was 6.39 kilograms, while the amounts of the other drugs were substantially smaller.[1]
Yusupov also described the trafficking operation as “not complex”.[1] Crown prosecutor Glenn Mohammed did not oppose summary jurisdiction and agreed the operation was “not sophisticated”.[1] The court heard Donnelly had 10 pages of prior criminal history, including “extensive” convictions for drug trafficking and possession.[1] Saines said the cash held alongside very large quantities of illicit drugs indicated a significant level of organisation.[1] He noted that trafficking carries a maximum of 15 years in prison and that three trafficking counts were proceeding against a repeat offender.[1]
