Damian James Tonga charged with supplying meth in Operation Tango Muscatel

A street level meth dealer was ‘extremely ashamed’ his father’s home was raided as part of a major drug bust involving 52 arrests.

A street level meth dealer pushed drugs to others to fund his own addiction claiming “life stressors” pushed his descent into ice abuse.

Damian James Tonga was “extremely ashamed” his father’s home was raided as part of a major drug bust involving 52 arrests, a court heard.

His phone was found with messages setting up multiple deals after Operation Tango Muscatel exposed $625,000 worth of drugs in a raid of 16 Mackay properties.

Mackay police seized multiple weapons including handguns, rifles and shotguns, $425,000 worth of meth, cocaine, MDMA, steroids and marijuana and $200,000 in cash in August 2022.

Judge Jennifer Rosengren said the 40 year old was “agitated” as police arrested him and “very disappointed” he was behaving so at “this stage of your life”.

Tonga plead guilty to 14 counts of drug supply and using his mobile phone in the commission of a drug offence.

Crown prosecutor Zachary Caplan said Tonga’s matters were “unusual” and “tragic” as he had a minor, dated criminal history but zero previous drug offences.

Mr Caplan said it was accepted Tonga’s drug dealing from April to August 2022 was “street level” to fund his own addiction, noting “the big players are in the Supreme Court”.

“What I can say is it was an overwhelming case against him (and) the plea was an inevitability,” Mr Caplan said.

Defence barrister Scott McLennan said his client had fallen into meth addiction after “a series of unfortunate events” and otherwise had a good work history as a welder.

“He’s not someone who’s had a long standing issue with drugs,” Mr McLennan said.

“The point here is that the stressors that essentially caused his descent into methamphetamine abuse are no longer present.”

“That might be the case, but gee life is stressful for all of us,” Judge Rosengren replied.

“And we all fall into these stressful situations and that was his response was to do this … as a mature man with a good work history.”

The court heard Judge Rosengren tell Tonga how “much more stressful your life will become if you continue to dabble in this drug”.

“It was a bad choice (but) I’ve learnt from my mistakes,” Tonga said.

“I’ve got a daughter just turned 19 (and) my family is like the most important in my life.”

Tonga was jailed for 18 months jail with immediate suspension for an operational period of three years.

Convictions were recorded and a forfeiture order signed.

Originally published as Damian James Tonga charged with supplying meth in Operation Tango Muscatel