Damien John Arnold sentenced in Rockhampton Supreme Court for drug trafficking

A Central Queensland father and machine operator has been told his role in a drug dealing syndicate was “truly evil”, making $57k a week. He had more than 120 customers. Full details here.

A Rockhampton dad who was a “pawn” in a drug trafficking operation has been told his involvement in the syndicate was “truly evil”, with a judge reluctant to let him walk free.

Damien John Arnold, 46, pleaded guilty in the Rockhampton Supreme Court on Thursday to drug trafficking and possessing more than 2g of meth.

Arnold’s offending was uncovered during a major police drug operation called Romeo Holt, which targeted a drug syndicate led by a man in South East Queensland.

For a period of about three months between December 28 2019 and April 2020 Arnold, and his partner at the time, participated in a drug trafficking operation where he would purchase drugs in street and wholesale quantities, the court heard.

Drugs purchased included marijuana and methamphetamine.

Arnold, a machine operator, would use encrypted messaging apps to communicate with the syndicate leader and used electronic tick sheets to “conceal the full extent” of his trafficking activities.

He would pay between $3550 and $4600 per ounce for meth, with the largest quantity of four ounces costing more than $17,000.

In total he purchased 24 ounces of meth for more than $102,000.

He also purchased marijuana in quantities between two and eight pounds, purchasing a total of 16 pounds of the drug paying more than $50,000.

At one point a complaint was made to the syndicate leader because the pair was losing customers due to selling drugs faster than being supplied.

While most of the drugs were sold, some of them were personally consumed by Arnold.

Arnold told an associate he was roughly making about $57,000 a week from trafficking.

As a result of profits from the drug trade, Arnold was able to purchase items such as a TV, car, boat and bike.

Between March and April 2020, Arnold changed his supplier to another man due to ongoing supply issues with the leader of the South East Queensland syndicate.

During the operation, about 124 people were caught on CCTV coming and going from Arnold’s home, most of which were customers between midnight on April 1, 2020 until the warrant was executed on April 5.

Some of them attended more than once on the same day.

The court heard on the day police raided Arnold’s home, a customer arrived at the property with enough money to purchase a “half-ball” of ice.

During the raid of Arnold’s home a number of items were found included a taser, mobile phones and a blue case containing digital scales, $300 in cash and clip seal bags.

When the phones were analysed police uncovered some messages between Arnold and associates.

Justice Graeme Crow took into account Arnold’s plea of guilty and history which was placed before the court.

The court heard Arnold had previously spent time in custody for matters and was subject to a number of assaults.

He also had a positive court report saying he had performed well on court ordered probation, with Justice Crow noting Arnold’s history was “quite light” for someone involved in that degree of trafficking.

Justice Crow also took into account Arnold had found a good job and was also looking after his father who had health issues.

“Mr Arnold your sentencing is difficult; your conduct was truly evil,” he said.

“You got yourself involved with some big time drug dealers and were one of their pawns, you’ve metered an enormous pain to the community, the addictiveness of the drug is made plain by the surveillance on your residence and a number of people attended on multiple occasions.

“These people are sick and you’ve made them sicker...as a first time serious offender Mr Arnold you get one chance and that chance is today...you should tell in the tone of my voice there is a degree of reluctance in what I am doing.”

Arnold was sentenced to three years imprisonment with an immediate parole release after 276 days of presentence custody was declared as time already served and a serious drug offence certificate was issued.