Clinton John Burns smuggled suboxone, meth and marijuana into prison

A Queensland inmate who previously served time in Tasmania for manslaughter was caught in a “really quite extreme” criminal enterprise of smuggling drugs into prison and supplying fellow inmates.

Capricornia Correctional Centre at Etna Creek in northern Rockhampton region.

An inmate’s dream of making $56,000 while locked up came undone in one phone call.

Clinton John Burns, 41, was talking with a female associate about his plans to make $56,000 of the drugs he had stashed in a prison two weeks before prison guards spotted a drug parcel thrown over the prison’s fence and Burns run to grab it, the Supreme Court in Rockhampton heard on November 9.

Burns was remanded in Capricornia Correctional Centre at Etna Creek when phone conversations and text messages between Burns and a woman were intercepted by police engaged in Operation Uniform Wilton.

Justice Graeme Crow said Burns advised the woman that he “needed a runner” on July 8, 2022, and over the next few days the pair “devised a plan to get drugs and other paraphernalia into the prison by throwing a parcel at an arranged time and date”.

He said Burns admitted to the woman he had received 300 (buprenorphine) strips in the past week and “I haven’t got it all in my bank but I’ve given it to f---ing certain people and I’ll end up making 56 grand off it”.

Capricornia Correctional Centre, Rockhampton prison, Rockhampton jail, Etna Creek prison

Justice Crow said prison officers saw a parcel thrown over the Etna Creek prison fence on July 10, 2022, and they intercepted an inmate running towards the package.

Inside the parcel, police located a clip seal bag containing 2.959 grams of pure methamphetamines in 3.889g of substance, four grams of marijuana in another clip seal bag, 113 buprenorphine strips, three tobacco pouches, papers, filters, syringes, a mobile phone and phone charger.

“This criminal conduct in this case is really quite extreme; such a large amount of drugs,” Justice Crow said.

A month later, Burns, who was held in a detention unit, was found in possession of 10 suboxone strips.

Justice Crow said Burns had a long criminal history with sentences in all three levels of Queensland courts and resulting in Burns spending “a long time in prison”.

Burns was convicted in 2023 for trafficking drugs between August 1, 2010, and February 17, 2011, and multiple domestic violence type convictions – including two choking and a stalking.

His also has a criminal record from Tasmania, where he was born and grew up, including a manslaughter conviction in 2000 for a matter in which he claimed he did not carry out the violent act that led to the death of a person, but had been present when it happened, a previous court heard.

Defence barrister Scott Lynch said there were two gaps in Burns’ history which showed he was able to abstain from offending.

He said his client had come from a disadvantaged background – his mother was a violent alcoholic – but had managed to make something of his life despite his childhood where he lived in group homes and left school in year nine.

Mr Lynch said Burns started working at age 17 and eventually gained employment in the mines.

At one stage, Burns had a house, wife and child but he lost it all after returning to drugs.

Burns pleaded guilty on November 9 to two counts of supplying drugs in a prison, one of possessing a restricted drug and one of causing prohibited items be taken into a prison.

He was sentenced to four years prison with immediate parole eligibility, having served out previous sentences before pleading guilty.