Joseph Toth has avoided jail despite cocaine and MDMA trafficking charges
A Mildura man thought to be the region’s king of cocaine by his fellow drug dealers has received a slap on the wrist after getting busted.
Mildura
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A Mildura drug trafficker who was thought to “run the coke scene” in town has escaped with a slap on the wrist after pleading guilty to trafficking charges.
Joseph Toth, 27, was given time served — reckoned as 50 days — and a two-year community corrections order when he fronted Magistrate Patrick Southey in the Mildura court on Thursday.
He’ll have to complete 200 hours of community work and undertake drug and mental health counselling over his MDMA and cocaine trafficking exploits.
Toth was spotted on surveillance with 20 MDMA caps and 44g of cocaine when he was busted as part of a sophisticated trafficking syndicate operating out of Melbourne as part of Operation Durango.
Operation Durango was a six month Victoria Police investigation into the trafficking of a variety of drugs in the Mildura area.
Police told the court of occasions where Toth was referred to as the top dog in the cocaine game in Mildura among his fellow drug traffickers.
“This guy runs the coke scene,” police heard a co-accused say of Toth ahead of an impending sale of the drug.
Toth was also caught on surveillance equipment, bragging he “only sold bulk cocaine”.
Police arrested the 27-year-old in December 2023 after a raid of his house turned up more cocaine, with a majority of it found hidden in the kitchen oven’s outer lining.
During his initial interview with police, Toth staunchly denied he was trafficking the drug, and said it was for personal use.
He claimed he hid it in the oven lining in case someone broke into his house.
The court heard Toth had been assaulted during his time on remand.
“If you don’t wake up to yourself now, you are going to live a miserable, unhappy life,” Mr Southey said as he handed down his sentence.
“Do that (community corrections) order or I will send you back to jail.”
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