It was January 29, 2023 and Maitland methamphetamine dealer John William Edmiston had a problem.
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He owed more than $50,000 to his up-line supplier, his customers were unhappy about the quality of the product and rumour had it that, rather than paying back what he owed, he was putting the proceeds of his operation through the poker machines.
As one contact put it, the word on the street was he was "slapping flat out".
By February 1 he had an even bigger problem; he had been arrested and would be charged with supplying more than a kilogram of methamphetamine, the culmination of a three-month covert investigation into his busy drug supply business.
Edmiston appeared in Newcastle Local Court last week and pleaded guilty to supplying a large commercial quantity of methamphetamine, which carries a maximum of life imprisonment.
Other charges of resisting arrest and supplying smaller quantities of ice, MDMA and cocaine will be taken into account when he is ultimately sentenced in Newcastle District Court later this year.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Edmiston first came up on their radar when police were monitoring the phone of another drug dealer and spotted the pair exchanging messages about supplying ice.
Between October 6, 2022 and February 3 last year police intercepted messages relating to Edmiston supplying more than 1.1 kilograms of methamphetamine over 43 separate transactions.
He was dealing in thousands and often tens of thousands of dollars and on one occasion swapped 187 grams of ice after a dispute over quality.
Extracts from the text and encrypted messages show Edmiston was always busy negotiating and would meet his customers in car parks.
When one customer in early December changed his order from two ounces to one, Edmiston asked "what happened?"
"Christmas bra," he was told.
Edmiston still gave him 56 grams, or two ounces, but said he would need to make the money back quickly.
But in January, Edmiston began having issues with the product he was getting from an up-line supplier.
"So this stuff is f---ed, it's not like what we have smoked [before]," Edmiston wrote on encrypted messaging service Signal. "It chokes me out when I've tried to smoke it and I've had at least 14 people come back going off about it aye. "It's f---ed, I can't smoke it or do anything."
The dealer disagreed and the pair began an argument about the product, the money Edmiston owed and how he felt like he was being treated like a "gronk".
"You're a long way behind," the dealer told Edmiston, referring to the $51,000 he owed for the 285 grams he had been supplied and would need to sell to make the money back. "And I was told by more than one person that you have been slapping flat out."
Edmiston denied that he had been playing the poker machines, blamed the "shit gear" for ruining their ice supply operation and said his "customers were struggling with their customers".
"Some of them think I've done something to it, you know," Edmiston said of the alleged poor quality ice. "It hurts your name when it's blow after blow. I never thought this would happen."
Edmiston swapped the 187 grams of poor quality out for more ice, but the walls were closing in.
On February 1, police went to Turton Street at East Maitland to look for Edmiston.
They were conducting checks on a vehicle outside his house when he emerged from inside and began walking towards Barton Street.
When police called out he turned and ran. Officers gave chase and caught him in his front yard. They wrestled and Edmiston was arrested. A search of his pockets and his "man bag" would later reveal about $1800, 50 grams of ice, 17 grams of MDMA and a small quantity of cocaine.
He was charged and refused bail, while police searched his phone and began piecing together his busy drug supply operation.
