A DRUG dealer who was recruited by the brother of former police minister Paul Toole to help run an operation spanning Newcastle and the Central Coast has been jailed for supplying ice to an undercover cop.
David Bui packaged and hid drugs behind a flower pot outside his Wadalba home 10 times in the space of two months in 2022 for a customer to collect, who would then leave up to $32,500 in cash at a time.
But what Bui didn't realise was that his boss, Joshua Toole, was organising the drops on an encrypted messaging service with a person later revealed to be an undercover police operative.
Toole had recruited the now 43-year-old Bui as part of a major drug supply network with a web spanning the Newcastle and Central Coast areas.
Between August and October 2022, Bui left a total of 1.4 kilograms of the drug known as ice behind the flower pot, in packages of about 140 grams at a time.
When police moved on him in October 2022, the same day as the final supply, they discovered a $151,700 cash stash and another kilogram of ice when they searched the home.
Bui was arrested and has remained behind bars since.
He faced Newcastle District Court via video link from custody on Wednesday, March 20, where he was sentenced.
The court heard details of Bui's background and in all the circumstances, Judge Roy Ellis ordered Bui to spend a maximum of four years in jail, with a non-parole period of two years and five months.
With time served since his arrest, Bui could be released in March next year.
Bui had pleaded guilty to two counts of supplying a large commercial quantity of methamphetamine, one of them a deemed supply, while one charge of dealing with the proceeds of crime was taken into account.
The court heard Bui had struggled with drug addiction himself since he was a teenager and had "succumbed" to the temptation of "easy money" when he agreed to work for Toole.
Toole supplied a total of two kilograms of methamphetamine and was at the head of a syndicate that included Bui, Paul Colvin, Tahney Partland and Peter Charles Ninnes, and that used encrypted apps, "dead drop" drug transactions and attempted to flood the Hunter and Central Coast with ice in 2022.
