Nathan Allan Cameron jailed for meth supplies in Townsville

A ‘seasoned criminal’ who has spent nine years and one month in prison in the past decade has been jailed for supplying ounces of meth at a time, trying to offload 31 litres of liquid ecstasy which is often used as a date rape drug, and other crimes.

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A “seasoned criminal” who has spent nine years and one month in prison in the past 10 years has been jailed for supplying ounces of methamphetamines at a time, a court heard.

Nathan Allan Cameron, 33, also tried to offload 31 litres of liquid ecstasy which is often used as a date rape drug and supplying drugs to a prison, the Supreme Court in Rockhampton heard on November 6.

Cameron started his latest round of offending by placing 99 strips of buprenorphine inside a Christmas card and posting it to an address in Townsville addressed to inmate at the Townsville Correctional Centre in November 2022.

Justice Graeme Crow said the court heard Cameron sent two more envelope containing 100 strips of buprenorphine the same way with the third intercepted at Thuringowa Post Office.

Checks revealed the envelopes were posted by Cameron’s girlfriend from the Kilcoy post office.

Justice Crow said Cameron’s nine supplies of meth were discovered when police searched another offender’s Townsville residence on July 5, 2023, seized their phone and discovered messages about drug supplies, even “spruiking” about the quality of his drugs and complained that his driver had “got pinched” so he had to get another to get his drugs from Sydney to Mackay.

He said Cameron claimed in February 2023 that he had 31 litres of GHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate) which has a street value of $93,000.

Justice Crow said the messages he sent the Townsville woman indicated he wanted to sell it, including asking if she knew anyone who would take “a litre at a time”.

Justice Graeme Crow. Pic Annette Dew

He said Cameron was apprehended after Rockhampton police found him with a Mitsubishi Pajero which had been stolen from Kinka Beach on April 15 and had been seen driven in Gladstone with false plates and involved in an alleged armed robbery before it returned to Rockhampton and parked at Norman Gardens.

Justice Crow said the defendant was standing at the back of the Pajero in German Street, Norman Gardens, moving items around when police arrived.

He said Cameron told police various lies, including that he had not driven the vehicle and that another person had placed his bags in the vehicle for him to collect while that person went to get cigarettes and that he had not been told the vehicle had been stolen.

Justice Crow said police found a loaded pistol near the front seat, along with marijuana.

Police also located a face mask, 10 Viagra tablets, a used glass pipe and four needles in a bumbag.

Cameron’s identity cards were in a wallet in a black backpack that also contained two rounds of ammunition and a ballistics vest, the court heard.

He declined to provide police his pin code to unlock his phone.

Cameron pleaded guilty to nine counts of supplying a dangerous drug, two of supplying drugs to a prisoner, three of possessing a dangerous drug, one unlawful use of a motor vehicle, one each of possessing a category H weapon, illegal possession of explosives, possessing tainted property, possessing a used pipe and contravening an order about accessing electronically stored information.

Crown prosecutor Joshua Phillips said this was not the first time Cameron had supplied buprenorphine to a prisoner having been sentenced for the same offending in 2019, according to his eight-page criminal record which contained 69 offences at 17 sentencing hearings.

He described Cameron as a “seasoned criminal” who had carried out commercial level supplies.

The court heard Cameron had spent nine years and one month in prison in the past 10 years due to his criminal offending.

He was sentenced in 2014 in Townsville District Court for two counts of producing dangerous drugs and other offences.

Two years later, he was sentenced for 13 counts of supplying dangerous drugs.

Fast forward another two years and this time he is sentenced for trafficking drugs for a short period of drugs.

But only a year later, he is sentenced for more drug supplies – this time in prison.

The court heard Cameron’s mother died from a heroin overdose when he was young and he was raised by an aunt.

He has two children who are aged three and 14.

Justice Crow gave Cameron a head sentence of 8.5 years prison, declared 477 days presentence custody as time already served with immediate parole eligibility.