For two months, Noel Bautista and his de facto partner Marife Farnham took a hire car or borrowed a vehicle to drive to Sydney multiple times a week to collect methamphetamine to sell in the Hunter region.
During that time, the Windale pair supplied 649.4 grams of ice in the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie communities - mainly to fund their own drug habits.
On Friday afternoon, Bautista was sentenced to a maximum of five years and 10 months in jail.
With a backdated non-parole period to account for the time he has spent in custody since his arrest, he will be first eligible for release in December 2025.
Newcastle District Court heard that the now 64-year-old used a mobile phone in his own name and would frequent hotels at Hamilton, Gateshead and Charlestown to do his deals.
He and Ms Farnham, who have two children together, would either borrow a car or hire a vehicle to drive to Sydney to collect their product two-to-three times a week between October and December 2021 - when they were arrested.
It was a supply operation that Judge Peter McGrath, SC, described on Friday as "not particularly sophisticated".
Their arrest came after police set up Strike Force Coifs in September 2021 to investigate illicit drug supply in the Hunter region.
Investigators secured warrants to monitor the couple's phone calls - during which the pair could be heard organising the sale of ice.
Some of those recorded calls were played to the court on Friday.
Bautista's defence barrister Bill Hussey said his client "does not resile from his role in this matter".
"He accepts his role and he accepts his criminality," Mr Hussey said.
"His main concern is for his family."
The court heard that Bautista had a long-term drug addiction and began supplying ice to fund his and Ms Farnham's habits.
Crown prosecutor Brian Costello said there was "no indication there was a great amount of profit derived" by the couple.
Ms Farnham will be sentenced on October 18. She remains on bail.
The third member of their drug supply operation, 63-year-old Glen Allan Ray, was previously sentenced to four and a half years in jail for his role.
