Fleeing police, Van Trieu Nguyen drove dangerously with a female passenger through a popular Brisbane tourist spot before crashing his motorcycle.
When police caught up with him, they discovered $74,000 cash in the passenger's bag and almost 100g of pure methamphetamine in a motorbike compartment.
Nguyen sped off with his passenger through construction work at South Bank Parklands after being asked to pull over in March 2022, police alleged.
After accelerating away and entering the tourist spot, Nguyen drove through fencing and past workmen and pedestrians, police said.
"You fled from police and drove dangerously in pedestrian areas in South Bank Parklands before crashing and being detained," Justice Catherine Muir said in Brisbane Supreme Court on Friday.
An officer chased the motorcycle on foot before intercepting Nguyen, police alleged.
In the passenger's bag was $74,000 cash in three vacuum sealed plastic bags.
Inside a motorbike seat compartment was a substance containing almost 100g of pure meth with a street value of up to $49,000.
Police also found three mobile phones, one encrypted.
Drug-related communications were later found on one of the devices.
Seized property at two addresses and the motorbike plus intercepted communications revealed Nguyen had been trafficking drugs - primarily meth - for about eight months from September 2021, the Crown said.
"This is serious criminal offending committed by you," Justice Muir said.
The court heard a police search of his Inala address in December 2021 found personal quantities of heroin as well as a sawn-off shotgun and some ammunition.
In the garage they found a "boxed laboratory" that had been previously been used for meth production but not all chemicals that were required were present.
He was sentenced on Friday for assisting in the once operational laboratory which had produced commercial quantities of meth but "didn't have an active role", the court heard.
Nguyen had struggled with drug addiction since high school and been addicted to heroin for many years but more recently had been using meth, the court heard.
Nguyen's criminal history includes 17 previous convictions from 2003, mainly for drug or dishonesty offences.
Nguyen, 40, pleaded guilty to a number of charges including trafficking dangerous drugs and dangerous operation of a vehicle.
He was sentenced to eight years in jail and will be eligible for parole in July 2024.
Justice Muir on Friday also disqualified him from driving for nine months.
