Mark John McDonald is facing 21 drug-related offences and sat silently listening to proceedings in Tamworth Local Court via video link from prison, as his family watched on.

The court heard McDonald, a personal trainer, had been held in maximum security in jail.

"Mr McDonald has been in custody for six months,” solicitor Amanda Gaw said.

“He's in Cessnock maximum security, his conditions are onerous."

She said this was “the fourth time the matter is before the court” and they “were ready to proceed”.

Ms Gaw handed a list of pleas to several of the charges, arguing the DPP had made no election on the drugs charges, seeking to have them dealt with in the local court.

“Your honour, no election has been made at this stage,” Ms Gaw said, arguing the election period had passed.

“I'd respectfully submit that that time frame has lapsed.”

Ms Gaw said pleas of guilty were “indicated” for some charges but the facts were in dispute for three charges of supplying cocaine, methylamphetamine and MDMA, or ecstasy.

Ms Gaw said her client would plead not guilty to “methylamphetamine ... but would plead guilty to amphetamine”.

She also told the court "if negotiations don't resolve" on the four steroid matters, then the defence would be “seeking committal on those charges too”.

Magistrate Julie Soars granted a further adjournment but declined to record the pleas on the papers.

“I’ve indicated there is a plea of guilty to sequence one but noted there is disputed facts," she said.

Ms Soars had earlier stood the case in the list, ordering the defence and prosecution to negotiate because McDonald “has a number of charges, and they're complicated".

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Detectives allege McDonald was supplying steroids, cocaine, MDMA and methylamphetamine in varying amounts to numerous persons and dealing with large amounts of cash.

McDonald faces a maximum of 20 years behind bars if found guilty, accused of supplying 910 MDMA, or ecstasy, tablets – a commercial quantity of the drug between early-November and December 8 in Calala.

DPP solicitor Jai Silkman said an expert certificate was still outstanding and they needed more time, adding they would be electing in all of the charges to see them transferred to the district court for trial or sentence.

“There is an expert certificate outstanding, which is required … so the weights of the drugs can be determined,” he said.

Ms Gaw also told the court they were seeking a timetable for a section 91 application to cross-examine the officer-in-charge of the investigation.

The court heard the issue at hand was the nature of what was found inside the house during raids by officers.

Ms Soars ordered both sides to file written submissions on why or why not police should be cross-examined at a committal hearing in the local court, with a “section 91 threshold issue to be determined” when the case returns to court in late-June.

McDonald, who has been behind bars since his arrest by Strike Force Kotzur detectives in December, made no application for bail and it was formally refused.

Co-accused Dylan Rutter and Matthew Raymond Hill both appeared in court, flanked by family, on the same day for drug supply charges.

Mr Silkman said an expert certificate was still outstanding for both cases, and solicitors did not oppose the adjournments to June.

Rutter is yet to enter a plea to one count of supplying a prohibited drug that is not less than a commercial quantity.

Detectives will allege Rutter supplied 350 MDMA tablets between August 17 and midnight on December 8, last year, in Calala.

Solicitor Greg Birtles applied and was granted an amendment to Hill’s curfew bail to allow him to respond to work call outs after hours.

“[That is] not to be absent unless on a work call out and that he be required to notify police,” he said.

“There's been other call outs, and he's been declining work.”

Ms Soars granted the adjournment, which was “varied by consent”, ordering Hill to notify Tamworth police that he is on a callout by telephone between the hours of 8pm and 6am.

Hill is accused of supplying 14g of the drug cocaine in the Tamworth area between September 27 and November 17, last year.

Hill is also accused of possessing cocaine and self-administering it on two occasions last year after police surveillance allegedly caught him consuming the prohibited drug in Calala.