Strike Force Mewburn: Rebels OMCG Tamworth chapter president Brent Douglas Murray sentenced in Sydney court for drug dealing

Brent Douglas Murray was jailed in a Sydney court on Tuesday for a minimum of three-and-a-half years for dealing speed and methylamphetamine over an eight-month period.

Acting Judge Colin O’Connor set a head sentence of six years after Murray admitted to supplying 306g of amphetamine, or speed, as well as 47.29g of methylamphetamine, between July, 2014, and March, 2015.

The 34-year-old also pleaded guilty to receiving $49,650 in cash knowing it was the proceeds of crime. 

In the sentencing hearing in Downing Centre District Court, Acting Judge O’Connor backdated the sentence to April, 2015, meaning Murray will be eligible for parole in October, 2018. 

Charges of supplying cocaine and cannabis leaf were taken into account in the sentence and Murray was also jailed for a two-month concurrent term behind bars for using a mobile phone to threaten to smash a woman’s head in.

Murray was the head honcho of the Rebels when he was stopped in his tracks by Oxley detectives – working as part of Strike Force Mewburn – in March, 2015.

During a sentencing hearing in Tamworth, last year, he wrote a two-page letter to the court apologising for his drug-dealing ways which he said had ‘​destroyed his life’.

“I lost everything because of my stupid habit ... I hate drugs now and want nothing to do with them,” he said in the letter.

Murray told the court he was using amphetamine every couple of days and then would turn to 3.5g, or a ball, of cocaine on the weekend at a cost of $1000.

The court heard he was “able to get his hands on” 56g of amphetamine each week for three weeks, despite telling the court he was only dealing to support his habit.

The DPP said Murray – who was facing a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment - had immersed himself “in a very dangerous business” and was a “big fish” in the Tamworth drug-supply market.

Despite the apology, Murray refused to tell the court or police who his suppliers were.

The operation by Oxley detectives smashed the Rebels Tamworth chapter in March, 2015, and saw eight members or associates arrested.

Murray said he left the Rebels when he went into jail.