COP CAUGHT WITH DRUGS

A policeman caught selling ecstasy has told a Sydney court he was trying to
ingratiate himself to underworld types during a lone investigation into the
death of a colleague.

Snared in an internal affairs sting last September, Senior Constable Craig
Raymond was subsequently charged with the ongoing supply of a prohibited drug.

He later pleaded guilty to selling 160 of the so-called party pills to an
undercover detective at a Sydney nightclub.

A raid on his flat led to the seizure of a further 846 tablets, with the
estimated combined value of the haul put at almost $33,000.

Raymond, 30, yesterday conceded that he had already been dealing for "a
couple of months" before being caught.

He had been forced into procuring larger and larger amounts of the drug by
a person threatening to expose his identity as a police officer, he told
District Court Judge Anne Ainslie-Wallace.

But he also conceded that in the end, he was using some of the ecstasy
himself to escape depression.

"I honestly couldn't say what my frame of mind was at that time," Raymond
told the court.

"It wasn't what I set out to do ... it just happened and I wasn't able to
pull myself out of it."

Raymond said he had first been drawn to the drug scene by a belief that
there had been a police cover-up in relation to the death of his former
police partner, Clinton Moller. Arrested in New Zealand after failing to
appear at the Wood Royal Commission into police corruption, Moller was
eventually sentenced to eight months' jail for contempt in 1996.

Although he was due for release in July the following year, the former
Bondi constable was also facing ecstasy and amphetamines charges.

On April 12, his body was found hanging from the doorframe of his prison cell.

Raymond had regrettably been instrumental in helping bring the charges
against his mate, he told the court.

However, he had suspicions about the veracity of the investigation into the
death and decided to launch his own probe. This consisted of posing as a
drug dealer among people he thought might shed light on the tragedy.

The pre-sentence hearing continues.