How Sarahs high life of luxury from selling sex toys exploded when she tried to do a deal worth $300,000 at a Melbourne service station

A former sex toys sales rep has swapped her flash life of luxury for a jail cell after she was convicted over her role in an international drug syndicate.

Party girl Sarah Baines was sentenced to the maximum 11 years for conspiring to traffick a large commercial quantity of methamphetamine. She was also convicted of trafficking GHB.

Baines, 33, attempted to purchase 1kg of meth for $165,000 at a service station deal in Melbournes north on June 22, 2022.

She had plotted with African community leader Abdul Diallo and another man Darren Hafner to purchase the drugs worth almost $300,000 at street value.

Investigators linked the conspirators via phone intercepts and established the trio had been in communication since May 1.

Diallo, an ex-hospital staffer and Amazon delivery driver, despatched a minion to the service station with a meth sample for Baines but the deal fell through when that minion halted the transaction for unknown reasons. 

Authorities raided Baines plush Southbank Boulevard high-rise apartment on September 20 and seized her phone, meth and date-rape party drug 1,4 butanediol. 

Police examined Baines phone and discovered she had been dealing bute, a GHB-mirror drug, since January 19, and meth since April 17.

Sarah Baines (pictured) was sentenced to a lengthy jail term after she was found guilty of conspire to traffick a large commercial quantity of meth

The court heard Baines, who had no previous convictions, worked in sex toy sales and ran her own cleaning business after completing an advanced diploma of business.

Melbourne Magistrates Court heard Baines lived a party girl lifestyle with regular GHB and meth use, but now faces years in jail at Melbournes Dame Phyllis Frost Centre. 

Diallo, who came to Australia after being kidnapped by the Sierra Leone rebels which murdered his father, was an active participant in a drug syndicate which conspired to import a meth precursor from India, Malaysia and Dubai.

The court heard the former African community leader plotted with two other men to import three consignments of pseudoephedrine between Jan 30 and July 27, 2022.

A specialist taskforce seized almost 13kg of pseudoephedrine after launching Operation Joondalup to snare Diallo and his crew.

The Victorian Joint Organised Crime Taskforce, which included officers from AFP, Victoria Police and Australian Border Force, identified the syndicate as being actively involved in importing the precursor used to produce large quantities of meth.

Its understood intelligence from the operation was handed to a specialist Victoria Police crew which investigated and arrested Baines.

Baines was well supported in court and several references from former clients, friends, employers were submitted on her behalf.

Sarah Baines (pictured) worked in retail, sex toy sales and ran her own cleaning business after completing an advanced diploma of business

A charity organiser who knew Baines for more than 10 years also wrote a letter of support for the convicted drug trafficker. 

Hafner, a father whose first-born child died, was arrested at his home and caught with heroin.

Judge Richard Maidment said Diallo was an active participant in the conspiracy.

This was not not spontaneous or isolated, it was well planned for financial reward, Judge Maidment said.

Baines, who appeared in court via videolink from jail after spending 230 days on remand, will serve at least seven years before being eligible for parole.

Diallo and Hafner, who appeared together from Marngoneet Correctional Centre, were both jailed for a maximum of 12 years and 8 years. 

Diallo was handed an eight-year and eight-month minimum jail term, while Hafner must serve a minimum of eight years and four months.