Court hands down significant sentence to matriarch of Cairns drug syndicate

A CAIRNS woman has been handed one of the most significant drug-related jail sentences in the region’s recent history as the head of a notorious local drug syndicate.

Natalie De Jong has been sentenced for trafficking meth and MDMA.

A CAIRNS woman has been handed one of the most significant drug-related jail sentences in the region’s recent history as the head of a notorious local drug syndicate.

Natalie De Jong, 50, was the matriarch of a “commercial and retail” operation, dealing methylamphetamines and MDMA throughout the city for about 18 months.

She was jailed for 11 years in the Cairns Supreme Court today and must serve at least 80 per cent of the sentence under Queensland law as anything above 10 years is defined as a serious violent offence.

The court heard she operated the business predominantly from her Holloways Beach home on Oleander St, but also had a unit on Wistaria St, a “safe house” and three storage units.

Between December 2013 and June 2015 the syndicate had a turnover of about $1 million.

Police raids in 2015 yielded more than $115,000 cash and more than 16g of pure meth from the unit which the court heard was also the base for a prostitution business she was running.

Her son Danny, 25, was sentenced last week to seven-and-a-half years jail last week for his part in the operation, trafficking meth.

Originally published as Court hands down significant sentence to matriarch of Cairns drug syndicate