TWO drug dealers who sold thousands of dollars worth of ice across Tamworth, while under surveillance by police, have been jailed for more than two years.
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Peter Green and Trent Reid met in the same laneway behind an East Tamworth bowling club at the same time each day to do their ice deals, but it was these meetings that brought them undone in December last year.
When detectives swooped and found the 6.67g of methylamphetamine on Green before the deal was to be done on December 19, the 34-year-old told officers he “found the methylamphetamine in the park and didn’t know what it was”.
Unbeknownst to him, they had been watching on and recording the same deals in the three days prior.
It was all part of Strike Force Jenning – an undercover operation set up by Tamworth detectives in October to bring down a drug ring operating across the city, which has seen nine people charged.
Tamworth District Court heard Green would sell Reid two eightballs, or 7g of methylamphetamine, before Reid sold it into the community, making about $17,000 over the operation period.
The pair were both facing a maximum of 20 years behind bars for ongoing supply.
However, Judge Peter Whitford told Tamworth District Court even though “it was done deliberately”, it was “a haphazard enterprise”.
Reid, dressed in prison greens in the dock yesterday, was a “street-level dealer who sold the drugs for profit” to fund his gambling addiction.
The court heard that on three occasions, children were present for the deals, and the 28-year-old married father-of-four would often take payment in the form of stolen goods.
The court was told he solicited a female customer to “steal toys to be later given to his children for Christmas gifts”.
“[He] was persistently onselling to others,” Judge Whitford said.
The court heard Reid “used five different mobile phones” with fictitious descriptions to hide his tracks and help with the drug supplies.
Between November and December, the judge said, officers tapped “150 drug-related conversations between the offender and others”.
Reid would regularly obtain oxycontin from two women who had prescriptions, and sell the tablets for between $20 and $80.
On December 12 last year, the court heard, Reid was heard arranging to sell three boxes of oxycontin a female co-accused had allegedly obtained, and the alleged transaction was done in a takeaway shop with a second female accused.
Reid was arrested that month. He pleaded guilty to supplying methylamphetamine and oxycontin on an ongoing basis. He is facing two years and eight months’ jail and will be eligible for parole in April.