Bodybuilding dealer sentenced to seven years after Thai deception discovered

A former Mr Universe contestant who was trafficking cocaine and Ecstasy from his Melbourne apartment has been sentenced to seven years’ jail after he was caught importing the drug from Thailand.

Blair Loveday, 56, was sentenced in the County Court on July 23 after pleading guilty to charges including importing a marketable quantity of a border-controlled drug and trafficking a drug of dependence.

Police raided Loveday’s St Kilda Rd apartment on August 2 last year after a package containing seven gear stick knobs was X-rayed at Melbourne airport and border force officers drilled into one of the knobs and found it contained white powder.

The consignment contained a total of 157g of pure cocaine.

The court heard Loveday, a former professional body builder who ran a related events business in Thailand, had been visiting the country, where he has a partner, every three to four weeks.

CCTV images were shown to the court of the Australian at a Thai DHL office, where he used a false name and Australian passport to send the package to his former address in Victoria Parade, East Melbourne.

Loveday’s phones, which were seized by police in the raid six weeks later, contained evidence he had been trafficking cocaine since April 2023 and had "an established client base", the court heard.

He kept records of payments and debts by “employees or agents” who sold drugs on his behalf and communicated with them via messages, referring to the product as “Columbia” and sending updates such as “the eagle has landed”.

He also sent photos of white powder on scales and in one message told an associate he had worked 36 hours straight packaging the product.

Police also seized 104 grams of MDMA, 2039 grams of testosterone, 1094 grams of steroids, $9050 in cash and various items used to package and traffic the drugs.

He pleaded guilty to trafficking ecstasy and the testosterone and steroids.

The court heard Loveday had been convicted of identity offences and trafficking cocaine and amphetamines in 2014 and abstained from illicit substances for several years.

However, he had slipped back into addiction after COVID-19 impacted the Mr and Ms Universe contest he had won the licence to stage in 2020.

Loveday, who has already served 355 days in pre-sentence detention, will be eligible for parole in four-and-a-half years.