Two brothers of a NSW MP have been jailed over a major drug syndicate operating in Newcastle.
28-year-old Joshua Toole was jailed for a minimum nine years after admitting trading large amounts of methylamphetamine and cannabis from his Newcastle apartment in 2010.
22-year-old sibling Kurt was jailed for a minimum seven years after Judge Laura Wells decided he did most of the leg work.
The brothers were caught after the police intercepted drugs. Both pleaded guilty in Newcastle Local Court in January
Paul Toole is the Nationals member for Bathurst, and was in the court as his brothers were sent to jail.
The brothers’ father Trevor Toole, a former mayor and NSW Nationals candidate, said his son’s became involved with drugs after moving from the family farm near Bathurst to Newcastle.
“I think it was the fact that they moved away and got caught up with the wrong people,” he told the court.
The boys come from a large family that includes health workers, police officers and teachers.
“It remains a mystery why the rest of the family have followed paths of respectability but Kurt and Joshua did not,” said lawyer Peter Hastings..
