Gold Coast drug kingpin jailed for 10 years for trafficking and late-night stealing sprees

A GOLD Coast drug kingpin who shared in $15 million worth of drug profits has also admitted to being a serial hoarder of $2 million worth of stolen goods.

Police lead away Joshua Thornbury (right) after his home was raided in 2014. Picture: David Clark

• Crime boss ‘lost’ 20kg drugs on flight
• Kingpin pleads guilty to importing cannabis

A GOLD Coast drug kingpin who ran a thriving bling-ring has been dethroned.

Joshua Paul Thornbury, 32, from Parkwood, who shared in $15 million worth of drug profits, has also admitted he was a serial hoarder of $2 million worth of stolen goods – one of the biggest hauls on record.

Nearly three years after he was raided by police he has finally been jailed for 10 years after he was caught bragging about his late-night stealing sprees on the phone to his mates and his wife.

When police raided his two homes in Parkwood and Guanaba in March and April 2014 they found a haul of stolen loot which took three days to catalogue.

Among the booty was a $32,430 opal collection weighing 100kg belonging to high-profile businessman John Fish, signed memorabilia from rock band AC/DC, luxury Swiss watches and wedding rings, through to tool sets, construction machinery and air conditioning units.

Opals seized by police from the home of Joshua Thornbury.

In the Supreme Court in Brisbane on November 28, Justice Roslyn Atkinson sentenced Thornbury to 10 years’ jail after he pleaded guilty to 146 charges ranging from corruption of a motor registry staffer, to trafficking in cannabis on domestic flights from Melbourne, stealing and receiving stolen property.

Police found a bag of gemstones in the garage of Thornbury’s Parkwood home, as well as four opals in his bedroom on April 15, 2014.

They also found another large opal near the fireplace of the Parkwood home in September 2014.

Vehicles seized when police raided his two homes in Parkwood and Guanaba in 2014.

The uncut opals were stolen from a locked shipping container at Fish Landscape yard in Hope Island by Thornbury’s associate Scott Bradley in March 2013.

Some items – such as an excavator stolen from a business in Yatala by Bradley on March 7, 2014 – were stolen on Thornbury’s orders.

During another spree, Thornbury told his wife Natalie Russell that he would “be out most of the night” and that he “wanted to make some money”.

Thornbury had already spent 848 days in prison before he was sentenced, leaving him just over seven years still to serve.

Originally published as Gold Coast drug kingpin jailed for 10 years for trafficking and late-night stealing sprees