Ice dealing mum jailed

ONE half of a husband and wife drugdealing duo has been jailed after the mother of three’s drug habit spiralled out of control.

Luke John Malone and Donna Rae Patricia Malone both appeared in Toowoomba Supreme Court on Tuesday where they pleaded guilty to drug trafficking.

The court was told that over a six week period between July and September last year Mrs Malone, 35, engaged in trafficking street levels of about 0.1g of methylamphetamine and cannabis with both her husband as well as acting as a bookkeeper and providing a safe house for her drug supplier.

Ms Petrie said the drug dealing was detected by police phone intercepts of her supplier, but after he was arrested on August 22 his girlfriend came to her and helped sell an ounce of methylamphetamine that police had missed in a search.

Mrs Malone’s solicitor David Jones said his client’s drug dealing could be traced back to around 2017, when she and her husband began to socially use methylamphetamine, but it escalated after their relationship deteriorated with violence and physical abuse.

“While Mrs Malone was initially using methylamphetamine socially when she was introduced to it, then she started using it with her husband, and it’s after that she started using it to selfmedicate,” he said.

“The line between the two fronts of the business are blurred,” he said.

“On the one front she was conducting business with her husband and the second was with her supplier.”

The court was told the Mrs Malone knew her supplier through his girlfriend and by 2020 “word had got out” that they had a direct link to a known drug supplier, which began their involvement in the trafficking of methylamphetamine.

“While there was no plan to deal drugs it went hand-in-hand with their addiction,” Mr Jones said.

As Mrs Malone sobbed in the dock Justice Peter Callaghan delivered the blunt news that she was going to spend time in custody.

“Every one of those transactions that involved methylamphetamine fed an addiction, or started an addiction to the substance that is one of the great social concerns of our age,” he said.

Mrs Malone was sentenced to a three year jail term, with a parole release date set for December 21, 2021.

Mr Malone will be sentenced on February 21, 2022.