Ex-Bachelorette star Samuel Minkin caught with over 300 lbs of cannabis

nypost.com:

A former Bachelorette “star” has avoided prison after he was caught driving a van carrying almost 330 pounds of cannabis to Queensland.Samuel Colin Minkin fronted Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on Monday after pleading guilty to one charge of possessing a prohibited drug and taking part in supplying a prohibited drug, namely cannabis, larger than a commercial quantity.Judge Warwick Hunt told the court Minkin, 30, was found with an encrypted device which had the platform An0m, which criminals used to communicate.The court was told Minkin was provided with the An0m device on May 26, 2021, which he used to communicate with another man, who asked him to pick him up from a property in Sunshine, Victoria by 8 am the following day.On the drive back, the van broke down on the Hume Highway and Minkin was told to get it towed to an address in Minto, in Sydney’s southwest.Judge Hunt told the court a “substitute van” was organised and Minkin met with the man on May 28, where they began driving to Queensland.NSW Police noticed the van about 5 am entering the M1 Motorway travelling in a northerly direction and quickly pulled it over at Crabbes Creek.Police found nine neatly wrapped boxes in the back.When asked about the boxes, the court heard Minkin said they were “extra household stuff he picked up from Bondi”, saying it was “basically rubbish”.He gave police the excuse he had moved to Queensland and needed to sort out the final things left at his Bondi house and sort out the bond.“(Police) formed reasonable suspicions the vehicle may have contained drugs,” Judge Hunt told the court.Both Minkin and the man driving the van said they didn’t know what was contained in the nine boxes, which the judge described as being “packed.