The ghastly end of a 24-year-old drug trafficker has turned the spotlight in Australia to the dangers involved in the trade.
A dog walker found a badly burnt and decomposed body lying on a single-bed mattress in a Melbourne park Monday.The police were initially clueless, but investigations revealed that it was the body of 24-year-old Charlie Boulos who had been selling and using the drug ‘ice.’
Homicide Squad Detective Inspector Steve Clark said Boulos, from Hillside, in Melbourne's outer west, suffered multiple stab wounds to the chest.
"He has been charged earlier this year with possessing and trafficking in ice, clearly we don't know at this stage whether his drug trafficking was related to his disappearance and murder, but that's certainly one of the main avenues we'll be chasing," Clark said.
He described the murder as horrific.
"To be dumped in an open area like that, after having been stabbed and burnt is fairly horrific and is something we want to solve obviously and as soon as we possibly can," he added.
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Ice often appears as large, transparent and “sheet-like” crystals that may have a hint of pink, blue or green colour.
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Ice is known to be smoked, swallowed, snorted, injected or inserted anally (“shafting”). Some people smoke ice using a glass pipe, while others heat it on aluminium foil and inhale the vapours (“chasing”). In 2004, 3.2 per cent of Australians aged 14 years and older had used amphetamines for nonmedical purposes in the previous year and over 38 per cent of this group reported the type of amphetamine they used was ice.
Meantime Boulos' sisters, Rose and Marilyn, made an emotional plea for anyone with information to contact police.
"He didn't deserve this, he was a good boy, he was a good man, everyone he knew loved him," Rose Boulos said.
"Whoever did this, they've broken up a family.
She said her brother didn't deserve to die such a horrific death.
"Not this horrific, he didn't deserve to die this way, he was a good guy.
"Being a drug dealer doesn't mean you're a bad person, he was actually quite a good person - he just got mixed up in the wrong crowd and I think he saw easy money."
She also said their parents were always worried about Charlie and his involvement with drugs.
"My parents' number-one fear, knowing he was in this drug scene, is that he would end up dead and unfortunately that's what's happened," Rose Boulos said.
"It's wrong to take someone's son," she said. "They deserve to be behind bars and rot in hell."
The sisters also warned anyone thinking of getting involved with drugs to steer clear.
"It's so not worth it, you do not know what you are in for, if you get involved in this," Rose Boulos said.
"It's jail or death, unfortunately for my brother it was death," Marilyn Boulos said.
Source-Medindia
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