Colin David Addis pleads guilty to trafficking meth for six months

A convicted drug trafficker was back selling meth as well as trying to offload an assault rifle barely a year after his release on parole. His lawyer says he got hooked on drugs after the death of his brother.

Colin David Addis pleaded guilty to meth trafficking, supplying meth and some weapon and drug-related charges.

A street level meth dealer who also tried to sell an assault rifle has had 2.5 years added to his current jail term when he was busted pushing drugs in Mackay barely a year after his release on parole.

In 2019, Colin David Addis was jailed for four years for drug trafficking and was released on parole on June 30, 2020.

By January 2022 the Balnagowan man had been picked up in sweeping police raids across Mackay and the Pioneer Valley as part of major operation Tango Radar targeting rural drug crime.

Mackay Supreme Court heard Addis, 64, was trafficking meth from July 2021, just 12 months after his release from prison, until his arrest last year.

Justice David North said police had been unable to determine the extent of his customer base or the quantity he had been trafficking.

“You did however source methylamphetamine in quantities as large as 28 grams, that’s an ounce, every three weeks from one supplier,” Justice North said, adding the drugs were sold and for personal use.

The court heard his drug sales were mainly in street level amounts and he had also offered to sell a shotgun and an SKS assault rifle.

Police raided his home on January 12 and he had been in custody since – he had served 420 days on remand.

Mackay Supreme Court heard Colin David Addis, 64, was trafficking meth from July 2021 to January 2022 when he was arrested and sent back to custody on a return to prison warrant.

Addis pleaded guilty to meth trafficking, supplying meth and some weapon and drug-related charges.

Tango Radar stretched between March 2021 and January 2022 and focused on alleged rural drug crime and ice trafficking predominantly in the Mackay and Pioneer Valley areas, which also extended to Cairns and South East Queensland.

Justice North said the most recent offending was similar to the trafficking for which he had been on parole “but was more serious ultimately because of the weapons charges”.

The court heard Addis had entered early and timely pleas and had been taking proactive steps to address his drug issues while in custody.

His barrister Scott Lynch said his client had become hooked on drugs following the death of his brother from leukaemia.

Addis’s full time release date for his earlier trafficking matter is April 30, 2023 – his new sentence must be added on and cannot be served at the same time.

Because of this Justice North highlighted the total penalty could not be too “crushing”.

Addis was jailed for 2.5 years with parole eligibility on April 30, 2023. The court heard it would be a number of months before his freedom bid would be heard.