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The Aus/NZ/Asian Drug Busts Mega-Thread Number Five

Simon Gittany was jailed for drug dealing in 2000

Convicted murderer Simon Gittany was jailed for supplying the party drug ecstasy more than a decade ago.

The shoe importer, 40, had been living the life of a high-flyer in a deluxe inner-city apartment when he murdered his fiancee Lisa Cecelia Harnum in 2012.

But 12 years earlier, Gittany was sentenced to three years of periodic detection after police found him with 55 ecstasy tablets in a black Porsche when they pulled the car over for a random breath test in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

Court documents reveal police noticed a nervous Gittany sitting in the passenger seat of the car, which was stopped on Manning Road at Double Bay on March 29, 2000.

An officer noticed a bulge in his pants and asked him what he was hiding.

Gittany pulled out a wad of mostly $50 notes. Then he bolted.

He was chased to nearby Wallaroy Road, where he was seen to dump a plastic container in a garden bed.

It contained 55 white tablets stamped with “Y2K”.

He jumped the fence of a house nearby and tried to hide in the front yard but a security light came on and gave away his hiding spot.

Police arrested Gittany and found he had stuffed $4500 down his pants and a further $707.60 in his back pocket.

He was charged at Paddington police station and later pleaded guilty in the NSW District Court to the charge of supplying a prohibited drug.

Gittany was sentenced to three years of periodic detection with a non-parole period of two years.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/simon-git...ing-in-2000-20131129-2ygj9.html#ixzz2m0Xg5uW3
 
When the Wolf got caught: how an accidental phone call helped bring down Oliver Ortiz


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From the sky, the Friday freedom was just one of dozens of dots moving across a vast expanse of blue. But the Australian Customs, Federal Police and US Drug Enforcement Administration agents covertly tracking the vessel in the Bundaberg Cruising Yacht Club's Port2Port Rally suspected it was no ordinary boat. For one, the man at the helm was one hell of a sailor.

When fierce Pacific Ocean swells forced most of the yachts in the rally to shelter in coral reefs, the Friday Freedom held true, ploughing through the two-metre waves buffeting the 17-metre cutter. The Friday Freedom's captain - a tattooed, bearded mariner from Spain - had also been using the alias El Lobo, which means "the wolf", to contact an associate from the Gold Coast going by the nom de plume El Calamar, or "the squid". Eight months before the yacht departed from Port Vila in Vanuatu, a third man who was in regular contact with the Wolf and the Squid had approached a small money-remitting service in Sydney that sends funds overseas for a fee. This man wanted $4 million wired to South America.

This was the point I'd cracked it. I put an alert on every Spaniard coming in.

If something was hidden on the Friday Freedom, it was likely to be worth plenty. Or so several nervous senior federal agents in Canberra hoped as they dispatched 150 officers dressed in T-shirts, boardshorts or skirts to melt into the north Queensland town made famous by the rum that bears its name. The rookie investigator whose work had prompted the sudden influx of fit-looking men and women to Bundaberg in October 2011 was even more anxious. Despite nine months of investigations, Grace Calma couldn't say with certainty what was on-board the Friday Freedom. "I was really nervous the whole time," she says. "It was one of those situations where we had money moving, we had guys acting a bit weird - but not overly weird - and we were, like, 'What are the possible explanations for this?' "

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It wasn't just the 29-year-old police officer's reputation and a vast amount of resources at stake. Operation Avalon was the biggest test to date of Australia's newest strategy to combat organised crime. Little wonder Calma "was absolutely packing it".

From his eight-bedroom, three-storey hill-side mansion house in the trendy suburb of Joá in Rio De Janeiro, Spanish-born Oliver Ortiz's balcony offered sweeping views of the white sand beaches of Barra and São Conrado. To reach his Harley-Davidson in the garage, Ortiz used a glass elevator. Ortiz's ostentatious digs stood in stark contrast to Rio's notorious favelas or shanty towns, just a short drive from his house. But there were similarities, too. The favelas were built into hillsides that gave their most powerful inhabitants - the drug traffickers who mostly lived on higher ground - sweeping ocean views.
In a favela, a gram of Bolivian or Colombian cocaine is easier to buy and costs less than a six-pack of beer. In Australia, a gram of cocaine costs about $350. Ortiz avoided the favelas, but he'd been to Australia. In October 2010, he travelled to Sydney and then on to Vanuatu, describing the reason for the trip on his customs declaration as "tourism". Ortiz travelled to Port Vila with another Spaniard, Sanchez Barrocal. Both men were keen sailors and divers, passions shared growing up together in the same small Spanish coastal town. In Vanuatu, they met another Spanish sailor, Christobal Chamorro.

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Unsurprisingly, the trio's trip to Vanuatu had raised no suspicions among customs officers used to tanned and wealthy tourists island-hopping through the Pacific. Chamorro had told customs about his intention to sail a yacht called the Adamas from Vanuatu to Bundaberg in the annual Port2Port rally.

On October 24, 2010, Chamorro had sailed into the Port of Bundaberg without incident. Around the same time, Ortiz had returned home to Rio and Barrocal moved to the Gold Coast.

Australian Federal Police (AFP) agent Grace Calma knew none of this when, three months later, she was assigned a classic "cold targeting" case. It was February 2011, and her task was to identify a man who had contacted a known money launderer in Sydney. "All we had was a dude," she says. And $4 million.

This "dude" had olive skin (a witness described him as possibly Greek or Lebanese) and he'd met the money launderer at Granville railway station in Sydney's west, where he handed over white boxes containing the cash. CCTV vision allowed Calma to track the man from the station carpark back to an apartment block in Bondi Beach. Rental records recorded his name as Herrero Calva, although his car was registered in a name that was also unfamiliar to her: Oliver Ortiz. Ortiz didn't register on any law-enforcement databases, but Herrero Calvo did.

The Spaniard had never been charged with any criminal offence, but customs officers had red-flagged him after he'd flown to Australia in late 2009 and, when quizzed about the purpose of his trip, had replied that it was raining in Madrid. When he left Australia four days later, Customs marked him as a traveller who should be subjected to scrutiny if he ever returned.

A year later, when Calvo flew into Sydney, his luggage was discreetly searched. Along with the usual tourist items, a customs officer found a single piece of paper that recorded the costs of transporting a shipping container. In February 2011, Calma was armed with strong suspicions and a phone-tapping warrant, but little more. Calvo wasn't connected to any known criminals apart from the money launderer he'd met near Granville station. And the phone tap yielded little. He regularly attended his English classes and didn't use drugs or even talk about them.

The only thing that regularly tweaked Calma's curiosity was the Spaniard's frequent discussions about sailing, yachts and shipping containers. Phone taps revealed that the man with whom Calvo had these discussions was another keen Spanish sailor, Sanchez Barrocal, who was living on the Gold Coast and who was also studying English. Curious, Calma checked Barrocal's travel history. He had travelled to Vanuatu several months before with the man whose name Calvo's car was registered in, Oliver Ortiz.

Barrocal and Ortiz may have been doing no more than snorkelling and sailing. Indeed, Barrocal's affinity with the ocean had led his friends to call him El Calamar. But to Calma, something smelt more than a little fishy.

The fact a 29-year-old former forensic specialist who had spent just four years as a detective could be assigned a potentially major international operation speaks volumes about a decision inside the nation's police agency to shake things up. By late 2010, it was accepted inside the AFP that the agency's focus on terrorism, cyber crime, overseas deployments and asylum seekers had shifted attention too far away from organised crime, just as it was booming. Crime bosses were increasingly based offshore and setting up compartmentalised syndicates utilising the latest counter-surveillance technology. At the same time, Australians were paying top dollar for drugs, which was increasing supply. Police were struggling to keep up and they knew it. So Commissioner Tony Negus picked two blokes with a difference and told them to come up with some new ideas.

Commander Ian "Irish" McCartney had joined the AFP in the 1980s after spending 18 months as an accountant. The quietly spoken Northern Irishman's qualifications meant he was sent to the fraud department, which at the time was regarded as the Siberia of policing. McCartney was unfazed. It was obvious that knowing how to follow a money trail was a vital skill, and one he sharpened as he developed a reputation as one of the AFP's most effective, albeit understated, performers.

Commander David Sharpe's early policing experience could not have been more different. A former top rugby player from the bush, the personable and energetic agent had cut his teeth in the ACT drug squad and the taskforce investi-gating the 1989 murder of AFP assistant commissioner Colin Winchester. Sharpe's generation of federal police regarded "fraudies" like McCartney with almost as much suspicion as they regarded state police and other federal agencies.

Both Sharpe and McCartney had excelled in mid-career overseas postings - Sharpe in Vietnam and McCartney in China - and had developed a close friendship. They knew how to play policing politics, but avoided it. They also both knew the AFP had to change if it was to tackle a global nemesis. International crime syndicates were increasingly using "shore parties" - expendable runners with no knowledge of who was directing them - to infiltrate Australia and operate as hands-on drug importers. If these runners were arrested, they were quickly replaced and the impact on the overseas syndicate was minimal. No wonder the amount of drugs passing across the nation's borders far exceeded what was being seized.

McCartney proposed that money might provide a way in. "What we were seeing was the major [crime-syndicate] controllers were actually based offshore. So our focus shifted to targeting and disrupting the professional money-laundering syndicates that are in effect moving money on behalf of organised crime.

"We could go out and do a cash grab in terms of disrupting the money-laundering syndicate, or we could start working backwards or working forwards to identify the primary crime syndicate [generating the dirty cash]."

The AFP established dedicated money-laundering teams and quickly unearthed a "United Nations" of corrupt but highly efficient remitters (predominantly Vietnamese, Middle Eastern, Tamil and Chinese) in major cities, particularly Sydney and Melbourne - two cities McCartney says are "awash with drug cash".

These money movers were prepared to knowingly flout anti-money laundering laws in return for a 3 to 5 per cent cut of every dollar moved, and to even underwrite funds, replacing money if cash was seized by police. But seizing money was only part of McCartney and Sharpe's new equation. Money launderers would be allowed to operate for days, weeks or even months after being uncovered and, in extreme and "highly controlled" cases, to move suspected drug funds offshore. "Allowing that money to run gives us the opportunity to identify major organisers overseas and track fresh importations," says McCartney.

Grace Calma, a self-professed nerd who bred and sold tropical fish to pay her way through university, was one of McCartney and Sharpe's earliest and keenest recruits. "Money scares the shit out of everyone [in the force], 'cause they're like, 'Oh, it's so hard,' " she says. "But investigating money is no different to investigating drugs. In many respects, it's easier because it's a physical commodity that they [criminals] have to [continually] move, versus a drug shipment that can occur very infrequently."

Calma showed promise for another reason; she didn't care for the inter-agency squabbling that previously hindered the fight against crime. (The AFP says these old jealousies are long dead, and 65 per cent of its organised-crime probes are done in partnership with other agencies, including state police forces.) Yet some things never change in policing. Senior cops prosper or perish on results. Without some big hits, McCartney and Sharpe's vision would founder. And Calma knew it.

By August 2011, after spending months building a picture of English-language students Herrero Calvo and Sanchez Barrocal (Oliver Ortiz had not returned from Rio), Calma was becoming frustrated. "They were really boring," she says. "Barrocal used to play [computer game] Battlefield 3 almost every day. I'm a computer nerd myself, so it would be kind of exciting hearing some of their conversations ... [but] they never once mentioned drugs."

In late September, Calvo accidently "pocket-called" a number in his mobile phone. This inadvertent phone call would change everything. The number he dialled was unfamiliar to Calma. It belonged to a Spanish national called Christobal Chamorro. Chamorro's travel records revealed that when Barrocal and Ortiz had been in Vanuatu, Chamorro was also there.

But unlike the other Spaniards, Chamorro hadn't travelled by plane. In October 2010, he had sailed in the Port Vila to Bundaberg yacht rally on the Adamas. Before Vanuatu, the Adamas had visited the Port of Balboa in Panama, a known cocaine-trafficking hub. Calma had no proof, but the available intelligence and her instinct suggested the Adamas was carrying drugs that had been sold in Australia, generating the $4 million Calvo had handed over to a money launderer in February 2011.

Calma asked Customs how many Spaniards had previously travelled from Vanuatu to Australia by boat or plane every month. The number was around six, small enough to request Customs to conduct live monitoring. "This was the point where I'd cracked it," Calma says. "I decided to put an alert on every single Spaniard coming in."

Calma wouldn't have to wait long. On October 13, she received an alert that a Spaniard named Ramos Valea had contacted Customs to tell them he was planning to sail from Vanuatu to Australia. Like Chamorro the year before, Valea had entered the Bundaberg Cruising Yacht Club's Port2Port Rally (all sailors must flag their intention to enter a port with the local customs officials). Valea told Customs he was departing in a matter of hours. "I was like, 'Oh, shit, this is sounding pretty good. The yacht is in Vanuatu at the moment,' " Calma says.

She asked the AFP's Pacific Islands liaison officer to take a photo of Valea's boat. A short time later, she was sent a picture of a 17-metre white cutter with the name "Friday Freedom" painted in blue letters on the side. Calma also received two more pieces of information. Valea had been nominated as the recipient of $2000 that had been wired from Sydney to Panama a year earlier. The sender was Oliver Ortiz.
Valea had also used an unusual email address to notify Customs of his travel intentions. It was [email protected]. In Spanish, a lobezno is a baby lobo - a wolf cub. An excited Calma picked up the phone and called Canberra. The Wolf was sailing to Australia: "I went from sort of just plodding along to 'Holy shit, I've got a lot to do all of a sudden.' " Intelligence from the US Drug Enforcement Administration corroborated AFP information suggesting that the Spaniards were a "logistics" cell active since at least 2009 and moving huge shipments of cocaine for a South American syndicate to Australia. But if that were true, Calvo, Valea and Barrocal weren't making it obvious. They never used the word cocaine and appeared to leave all sensitive discussions to face-to-face meetings or online chat sessions.

Calma deciphered several code words the three had been using with increasing frequency on the phone: "mosquito" was Vanuatu, "the mammoth" was the yacht. Her confidence increased when Barrocal and Calvo had a series of discussions about buying suitcases and hiring cars to meet "the mammoth" in "the place you know".

Among the few certainties in the operation was that the Wolf was a brilliant sailor; anyone in the AFP who knew anything about sailing marvelled at Valea's ability as they tracked the Friday Freedom across the Pacific Ocean.

Valea sailed into the Port of Bundaberg on October 20. Four days later, surveillance operatives observed him using a new email account (lobo362011@hotmail) at a backpackers' internet café to send a message to the Squid: "I'm where you already know ... I wait for you, calamar!"

The police were also waiting, dotted throughout Bundaberg like a human spiderweb. But Valea was in no rush. After securing a two-week mooring permit, he went to the Bundaberg Yacht Club's pirate party with his Spanish girlfriend (his companion on the boat) and won first prize for best dressed.

Police waited one week and then two. Once a third week had drifted by, Calma began doubting herself. On November 11, she flew to the Northern Territory for her grandmother's 80th birthday dinner. That same day, Calvo and Barrocal drove from the Gold Coast to the Bundaberg marina. AFP surveillance crews saw them meeting Valea and disappearing down the hull of the Friday Freedom with several suitcases.

Twenty minutes later, the trio reappeared and carried the suitcases to two cars. They were arrested while driving a few minutes later. Police found a total of 300 kilograms of cocaine. At Barrocal's Gold Coast apartment, they discovered $288,850 in a safe; a further $3.7 million was found in Calvo's Sydney home. It was one of the AFP's biggest organised-crime hauls. But Calma had no illusions about the impact of what, on paper at least, was an extraordinarily successful operation. If the three Spaniards were a logistics cell, they were acting on someone else's orders. The AFP had no idea about the identity of the supply syndicate or the identity of the Australian buyers. Intelligence suggested it was the cell's third importation and they had moved at least $50 million over three years.

After creating a 25-page chronology of the operation, Calma found something else that frustrated her. The man living it up in Rio, Oliver Ortiz, had appeared multiple times throughout her operation and Calma believed he was a senior player. And what was it about the Pacific Islands that had made the Spaniards so confident they wouldn't get caught? In the months after the Spaniards were arrested, the AFP launched a confidential project to examine why the Pacific Islands were increasingly being used as a staging point for international drug syndicates.

Recently, the AFP finalised a confidential briefing paper that details serious "vulnerabilities", including corruption, in the region. Sharpe and McCartney won't talk about this paper, aside from pointing out that Operation Avalon was only the start of their efforts. Last November, Operation Walcott seized 200 kilograms of cocaine on a yacht near Tonga, and Operation Saba detected 200 kilograms in a boat near New Caledonia. Earlier this year, Operation Basco was launched based on information found during Calma's investigation, and as a result 750 kilograms of cocaine was seized from a yacht in Port Vila. Investigations are ongoing.

But it isn't all about drug busts. Sharpe stresses the federal police is examining the broader, social factors at play that contribute to drug demand, such as education and health. The AFP is convening a youth drugs summit in the next few months to generate debate. "If you look at the yachts coming in, we've stopped a huge amount of cocaine hitting the streets ... Well, that's well and good. But what does that actually mean?"

The word "decriminalisation" is still taboo in mainstream policing, but no one is talking about a war on drugs, either. Says Sharpe: "We cannot simply arrest our way out of the problem."

In late 2012, Grace Calma headed to the US Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters in Virginia. She was escorted to a briefing room with the AFP's Colombian-based liaison officer and the DEA's Special Operations Division. Six months later, in late June, Calma got the email she had been waiting for.

A hillside mansion in Joá, Rio De Janeiro, had been raided by the Brazilian Federal Police. Almost $10 million in assets, including a Harley-Davidson, was seized. Oliver Ortiz had been charged with money laundering. Calma smiled. She then got back to work.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/when...d-bring-down-oliver-ortiz-20131125-2y4n5.html
 
SYDNEY AIRPORT, DRUGS IN HANDBAG

TEN handbags were found with about 2.5 kilograms of the drug 'ice' by customs officials being brought through Sydney Airport by a woman from Switzerland.

The 51-year-old was selected for a baggage examination by Australian Customs and Border Protection Service on Wednesday after arriving from China.
An x-ray of the bags revealed something suspicious in the lining. When the bags were pulled apart white crystals were found which were tested and shown to be 'ice'.

The Australian Federal Police charged the woman with importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug. The matter is before the courts.

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http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...s-seize-25kg-ice/story-fni0cx12-1226782723468
 
Police CATCH program urges highway patrol officers to look beyond road crimes to detect illegal activity

It was on a lonely highway leading out of a tiny NSW town, along way from the so-called Golden Mile, where a Kings Cross identity's drug empire began to unravel.

A white van driving along the Kamilaroi Highway just outside the north-western township of Quirindi, population 2500, was pulled over for a routine breath test.

While the highway patrol officer was carrying out the test on December 19, 2010, he struck up a lengthy conversation with the two men inside the hired van. The longer they spoke, the more the officer's suspicions rose.

''When he started to question the individuals, nothing was weighing up,'' Detective Superintendent Stuart Smith says. '''Why are you here? What are you doing?' There was a whole lot of elements that come together and led him to think 'I need to search this.'''

What he found in the back was a collection of glassware - the type used in large-scale illegal drug labs, which was enough for him to arrest both men.

The drug squad came and searched the rest of the van, uncovering 19.5 kilograms of uncut MDEA, another form of the drug ecstasy, hidden in plastic bags within white buckets filled with sand. The haul was enough for at least 650,000 hits, which conservative estimates put at being worth about $19.5 million.

Fingerprints on the glassware led police to their next target, Adam Freeman, Kings Cross nightclub owner and son of late underworld figure George Freeman. Freeman fled the country the day after his two friends were arrested but eventually returned home, handing himself in and in September pleading guilty to making a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug. His co-accused received nine years' jail and Freeman will be sentenced in the new year.

It was NSW's largest mobile drug bust and it came about thanks to a random breath test.

The Freeman bust was the result of CATCH - Crime and Traffic Connecting on Highways - a program adapted from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and introduced among more than 800 highway patrol officers across the state starting in 2009.

Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn says it is aimed at having Highway Patrol officers not just focus on speeding, drunk drivers and unregistered cars but to look for other suspicious activity.

''It isn't this amazing formula that we haven't thought about before,'' Ms Burn says. ''But when we started CATCH it became about observational skills, some common sense, simple detection techniques, so if there is something illegal happening we are likely to detect it.''

In the four years since the launch CATCH highway patrol officers have detected $86 million in drugs, firearms and stolen property.

This month it resulted in officers pulling over an unregistered Holden Astra at Goulburn and finding a woman with 296 ecstasy tablets.

In Punchbowl highway patrol officers this year pulled over a hire car and found a fully-loaded Beretta handgun and cocaine hidden in the driver's underpants.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/police-ca...al-activity-20131214-2ze3k.html#ixzz2nTkVWPEJ
 
Bikies charged in $3mil Sydney drug raid

Police have allegedly seized drugs worth more than $3 million from a storage unit in Sydney's west.

Approximately 1.8 kilograms of methylamphetamine was found in a search of the Minchinbury unit on Monday, police allege.

Detectives then searched a Kellyville home, where they seized more than 220 grams of a substance believed to be methylamphetamine and a number of mobile phones.

Two brothers - allegedly members of the Lone Wolf outlaw motorcycle gang - were charged with supplying a large commercial quantity of prohibited drugs.

A 33-year-old man was refused bail and is scheduled to appear in Mount Druitt Local Court on Tuesday.

A 29-year-old man was also refused bail and was to appear in Parramatta Local Court on Tuesday.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2013/12/17/12/14/bikies-charged-in-3mil-sydney-drug-raid
 
Street Watch: drug MDMA seized

BRINGELLY, MDMA SEIZED

A SECOND man has been charged after hundreds of MDMA tablets and a handgun were allegedly found at a Bringelly property earlier this month.

Evan Tompsett, 22, was charged on Thursday by Drug Squad detectives with large scale drug supply, possession of unregistered pistol and possession of prohibited weapons.

He appeared in Liverpool Local Court yesterday and was refused bail to reappear at Campbelltown Local Court on February 12.

Lee Ballard, 34, was arrested near a Frenches Forest home on December 3 and it as well as the Bringelly property, where he lived with Tompsett, was searched.

Police said they found cash, cannabis, documents and mobile phones at Frenches Forest and the MDMA tablets, prohibited weapons, a handgun and a number of documents at Bringelly.

Ballard is charged with large scale and commercial drug supply and dealing in the proceeds of crime.

He is refused bail and is next due to appear in Central Local Court on February 11.

CAMPBELLTOWN, UNCOVER DRUG BUST

AN UNDERCOVER police operation has led to the arrest of a couple over dealing ice.

Police raided addresses in Kearns, Eagle Vale, and St Andrews on Thursday seizing amphetamines, methylamphetamine (ice), a replica pistol and a stolen motorcycle.

Seven cannabis plants were seized at another home in Ingleburn.

During the month long operation police allegedly purchased ice from the couple.

Maree Cribb, 26, was charged with five counts of supply prohibited drugs on an ongoing basis and was refused bail in Campbelltown Local yesterday to reappear on February 5.

Andrew Ellul, 28, charged with four counts supply prohibited drugs and was also refused bail to reappear on the same date.

Strike Force Fencott investigators said further arrests and charges expected to be made.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/street-watch-drug-mdma-seized/story-fni0cx12-1226787692140
 
Brisbane man Peter Phillip Nash accused in US over Silk Road drug dealing website

US PROSECUTORS have accused Brisbane man Peter Phillip Nash of being one of the central figures in the hidden, encrypted internet "black-market bazaar" Silk Road.

It is alleged the Silk Road website was used by several thousand drug dealers to distribute hundreds of kilograms of heroin, cocaine, LSD and other illegal drugs and illicit goods to more than 100,000 buyers around the world over the past two and a half years.

Nash, 40, was employed since January 2013 by Silk Road's San Francisco-based owner Ross William Ulbricht, known by the alias Dread Pirate Roberts, as the primary moderator of the website's discussion forums, prosecutors said.

Nash, who went by the aliases "Batman73" and "Anonymousasshit", was named in an indictment unsealed on Friday by prosecutors in New York.

He was arrested in Brisbane by Australian Federal Police on Friday and faces extradition to the US.

Two other alleged Silk Road employees, Andrew Michael Jones, 24, of Virginia, and Gary Davis, of Ireland, were also named in the indictment.

Ulbricht paid the site administrators and forum moderators salaries ranging from approximately $US50,000 to $US75,000 ($56,590 to $84,885) per year for monitoring user activity on the Silk Road website, responding to customer service inquiries and resolving disputes between buyers and vendors, it is alleged.
Drug Website Shutdown

Shopfront ... A screenshot from the Silk Road website shows a product allegedly available through the site. Picture: AP Photo/silkroaddrugs.org

The trio is charged with one count of money laundering conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in US federal prison.

They are also charged with narcotics conspiracy and conspiracy to commit computer hacking.

Ulbricht was arrested in San Francisco on October 1.

Preet Bharara, the US attorney for the southern district of New York, praised the help of the Australian Federal Police with the investigation into Nash.

http://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/brisbane-man-accused-in-us-over-silk-road/story-fnh81jut-1226788149230

http://www.heavy.com/news/2013/12/peter-philip-nash-silk-road-arrests/

3 people were arrested including one Australian
 
Ice worth $43 million seized as central coast drug syndicate smashed: police

A central coast drug syndicate allegedly manufacturing more than $43 million worth of drugs to distribute across the state has been smashed following a year-long investigation, police say.

Six men were arrested in co-ordinated raids on Monday that netted millions of dollars worth of ice as well as a treasure trove of goods including guns, cash, jewellery, luxury vehicles, steroids, a South American Macaw and a Diamond python.

A clandestine laboratory hidden on a multimillion-dollar semi-rural property just metres from the M1 motorway at Ourimbah was the headquarters of the operation, police allege.

From its driveway down a narrow bush track, the one-storey home appeared to be a plush bush retreat with four cars in its garages, a golf buggy, a pool and a personal gym.
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However, officers allegedly found a sophisticated drug lab set up in a garage attached to the home with four kilograms of methylamphetamine or 'ice', 1200 litres of solvents used to cook the drugs and 37 litres of methylamphetamine oil, which makes about 37 kilograms of ice.

The drugs were allegedly distributed throughout the central coast, Sydney and interstate.

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"It's a significant arrest by anyone's standards purely based on the volume of meth seized at the lab," said Drugs Squad Commander Nick Bingham.

"The potential for that lab, based on the output it has on a daily basis, is huge and we're hoping it will have a noticeable impact on ice on the central coast in particular.

"The money the distributors are making from it is one thing, but the social issues ice creates and the havoc that it wreaks on families and hospital emergency wards and so many others is another."

Two men, both aged 32, arrested at a home in Matcham, were allegedly in charge of the manufacturing of the drugs.

Police seized a Glock pistol, a Luger pistol, cash, steroids and three vehicles – a Mercedes C63, a Mercedes CLK and a Jeep - from the home.

Three men who were allegedly involved in the distribution of the drug were arrested at homes in Ourimbah, Palmdale and Matcham.

The sixth man, a 37 year-old well-known criminal in the area, was located during the same operation but was wanted by Operation Polaris investigators in relation to organised crime on Australia's waterfront.

The operation began last November following information from the NSW Crime Commission that suggested one of the men was involved in large scale drug supply. He was monitored for 12 months, leading police to many of his associates.

Detective Superintendent Bingham said the arrests capped off a big year in the fight against drug crime.

“The number of clan labs shut down by police in NSW during 2013 now totals 113,” he said. “Furthermore, we have seized millions of dollars worth of illegal drugs and charged hundreds of people with significant drug supply offences.”

He urged people to look out for the seven tell-tale signs of a suburban drug lab:

- Strange odours emanating from the property

- Diverted electricity

- Chemical containers and waste

- Blacked out windows

- Hoses and pipes in strange places

- Blinds down, with extremely bright indoor lighting radiating through gaps

- Vehicles arriving at odd hours

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/ice-worth...shed-police-20131224-2zvcr.html#ixzz2oMIGn67h
 
Customs and Border Protection seize over 86,000 Xanax and Valium tablets

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Customs and Border Protection seize over 86,000 Xanax and Valium tablets
13-02-2014 -
The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (ACBPS) has seized over 86,000 Xanax and Valium tablets at Sydney Airport.

ACBPS officers selected a 29-year-old Australian man for a baggage examination on Monday (10 February, 2014) when he arrived home on a flight from Fiji.

During the examination, officers detected and seized 43 bottles filled with 86,000 Xanax tablets and 342 Valium tablets.

ACBPS National Manager Airport Operations, Craig Sommerville, said that while the use and importation of Valium and Xanax may be legal when appropriate documentation is provided, smuggling them into Australia without a permit is strictly prohibited.

“While access to drugs such as these may be legal in some countries, if you bring them back illegally into Australia, you could face heavy penalties,” Mr Sommerville said.

“The maximum penalty for importing substances, such as prescription drugs, without a permit is a fine of $170,000 and up to five years in prison.”

The man has been questioned by the ACBPS and now faces the prospect of prosecution.

http://newsroom.customs.gov.au/rele...on-seize-over-86-000-xanax-and-valium-tablets
 
Five charged after meth valued at $180 million found in kayaks

POLICE have charged five people in Sydney over the importation of an estimated $180 million worth of methamphetamine concealed inside kayaks sent from China.
Customs allegedly found about 183kg of the illegal drug on Wednesday last week after X-raying 27 kayaks that had entered Australia.

The tests showed 19 of the kayaks contained packages with methamphetamine inside.

Australian Federal Police on Tuesday allowed the kayaks to be delivered to a Sydney storage facility, where they arrested four Taiwanese nationals.
Three of the men, aged 21, 30 and 35, were charged with possessing a commercial quantity of drugs and the fourth, a 28-year-old woman, was charged with drug importation.

Police later arrested a 32-year-old Kensington man at his home and charged him with attempting to import the drugs.

Customs regional director Tim Fitzgerald said the 183kg of crystal meth was found in watertight areas inside the kayaks.

There were also a number of life jackets inside the boats that may have been put there to misdirect the attention of any searches, he added.

“It’s fair to say that any item coming into Australia can be used to hide narcotics,’’ he told reporters in Sydney today.

“Previously through airports, we’ve seen narcotics concealed inside surfboards.”

Mr Fitzgerald said that in the past 14 months, Customs had found more than 1000kg of meth in liquid and crystal form.

He said the drug was a “significant problem’’ for border protection authorities and a significant amount came from China.

Australian Federal Police Sydney manager Ray Johnson said people accused of drug hauls of the amount found in the kayaks could expect to face around 15 years in jail if found guilty.

The kayaks were inspected at the Sydney Container Examination Facility.

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Customs discover 3.5kg of heroin allegedly concealed in packets of noodles after searching Taiwanese man’s luggage

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CUSTOMS officers at Sydney Airport have seized three-and-a-half kilograms of heroin allegedly concealed in packets of noodles.

Australian Customs and Border Protection Service officers picked out a 41-year-old Taiwanese man for a baggage examination on Sunday after he had arrived on a flight from Thailand.

During the examination, the officers found hard blocks concealed in packets of noodles.

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Further analysis of the blocks found a white powder inside which initially tested positive for heroin.

“The way these dangerous drugs were concealed demonstrates that this was an obvious attempt to breach our border and deceive Australian authorities,” ACBPS National Manager Airport Operations, Craig Sommerville said.

“Attempting to import illicit drugs into Australia is a serious crime, and if convicted you could face severe penalties or even gaol time.”

The matter has been referred to the Australian Federal Police.

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http://www.news.com.au/national/nsw...ese-mans-luggage/story-fnii5s3x-1226830211056
 
Queensland police arrest 16 Brazilian students trying to import cocaine through airports with modified luggage

A MULTI-MILLION dollar Gold Coast cocaine syndicate that used Brazilian students as drug mules has been smashed.

Police have seized about 15kg of cocaine worth an estimated $5 million and arrested 23 people, including 16 Brazilian nationals.

Brazilian students studying on the Gold Coast were recruited to smuggle the cocaine to Australia using special suitcases with the drugs sewn into the lining, authorities say.

They say all the cocaine was destined for lucrative Gold Coast party drug market.

The ‘sophisticated’ racket was smashed after a 15-month investigation by Gold Coast detectives, Customs, federal police and the Australian Crime Commission.

“This particular syndicate has been disrupted and dismantled,” regional crime co-ordinator Superintendent David Hutchinson said.

He said six Brazilian students were among the 23 people arrested during Operation Lima Exposure.

Four people were arrested at Sydney and Brisbane airports between March and September last year with large quantities of cocaine ranging from 2kg to 4kg.

In September, police say a man was arrested trying to fly out of Sydney Airport with $112,000 in cash allegedly linked to the syndicate.

Another two people were arrested today to over a 1kg cocaine seizure at a Surfers Paradise high rise last November.

Police say at least two alleged syndicate members have fled to Brazil but they hope to arrest them.

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http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...modified-luggage/story-fnihsrf2-1226831667945
 
Ephedrine seized in air cargo at Sydney

CUSTOMS officers have seized more than six kilograms of the precursor drug ephedrine hidden inside bicycle seats sent in air cargo from China.

Australian Customs and Border Protection Service officers detected the drug last Friday when a consignment was x-rayed.

Around 6.3kg of a white crystalline substance was found in 18 bicycle seats and the substance returned positive results for ephedrine.

"Ephedrine is used to manufacture dangerous and illegal amphetamine-type substances such as 'ice'," national manager cargo operations, Jagtej Singh, said in a statement on Wednesday.

He said those caught attempting to smuggle a marketable amount of a border-controlled precursor, such as ephedrine, could face penalties of up to $510,000 or 15 years in prison.

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http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...-cargo-at-sydney/story-fnihsfrf-1226831184224
 
Two WA men charged over 1.3kg of drugs

TWO men have been charged with drug offences after West Australian police seized about 1.3kg of methylamphetamine hidden in two vehicles.

Detectives had been investigating the supply of illicit drugs to the Kimberley and Pilbara regions, and allege the men drove to Perth this month to take delivery of the drugs.

Police believe the drugs were destined for distribution in those regions.

A 49-year-old man from Broome and a 59-year-old man from Port Hedland were arrested in Perth on Monday.

Both have been charged with possession of a prohibited drug with intent to sell or supply.

They will appear in the Perth Magistrates Court later on Tuesday.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...er-13kg-of-drugs/story-fnihsfrf-1226830438796
 
Two men arrested as police swoop on Blue Mountains clan lab - SCC Drug Squad

Tuesday, 18 March 2014 11:45:05 AM

***Editor’s note: Images from the clan lab will be sent to photo desks via email shortly.***

Police have arrested two men and shut down a clandestine laboratory in the Blue Mountains.

Last year (2013), detectives from the State Crime Command’s Drug Squad formed Strike Force Pickling to investigate an alleged drug manufacturing syndicate operating west of Sydney.

Shortly before 4pm last Thursday (13 March 2014), police stopped a car being driven on the M4 Motorway in Penrith.

The driver – who was the sole occupant of the vehicle – was spoken to by police, before officers conducted a search of the car, locating a number of chemicals and items of glassware believed to have been used in the manufacture of illicit drugs.

The driver – a 23-year-old man from Sun Valley – was subsequently arrested and taken to Penrith Police Station.

A short time later, police executed a search warrant at the 23 year old’s Sun Valley home. Inside the property, police located a large scale clandestine laboratory, as well as 1.5kg of MDA, which is often sold as a form of ‘ecstasy’. Detectives will allege that the MDA seized had an estimated street value of $1.5 million.

Officers also located close to 100 items associated with drug manufacture, including an array of glassware, a variety of chemicals and more than 80 litres of waste product.

A 23-year-old Revesby man, who was present at the Sun Valley property when police arrived, was arrested and taken to Penrith Police Station. Officers subsequently executed a search warrant at his home on Horsley Road in Revesby, where they located more than 1000 litres of chemicals used in the manufacture of MDA, a variety of unknown powders and 15 vials of testosterone.

The two 23 year olds were later charged with large commercial manufacture of MDA.

The Sun Valley man was bail refused and is next due to appear in Parramatta Local Court on 28 May 2014.

The Revesby man was also refused bail. He is next due to appear in Blacktown Local Court this Thursday (20 March 2014).

The Commander of the State Crime Command’s Drug Squad, Detective Superintendent Tony Cooke, said officers across the police force were committed to shutting down clan labs, and reminded members of the public that they have a role to play too.

“We will continue to do everything we can to gets drugs out of our communities, but we need the public’s help to succeed.

http://www.police.nsw.gov.au/news/latest_releases?sq_content_src=%2BdXJsPWh0dHBzJTNBJTJGJTJGZWJpenByZC5wb2xpY2UubnN3Lmdvdi5hdSUyRm1lZGlhJTJGMzY0NzAuaHRtbCZhbGw9MQ%3D%3D
 
Public servants involved in drug ring: police

Public servants were involved in a Gold Coast drug syndicate that distributed cannabis along the Queensland coast, police say.

The syndicate allegedly bought cannabis in Victoria and sold it in Brisbane, Townsville and on the Gold Coast.

Police said employees of Queensland Government Departments assisted in facilitating their crimes.

The 12-month investigation has now closed following the arrest of 21 people on 42 charges in Queensland, NSW and Victoria.

More arrests and charges are expected.

Police allegedly recovered more than $6 million in stolen property, including heavy machinery, boats, caravans and a collection of gemstones.

More than a $1 million of narcotics have been seized, as well as $222,500 in cash.

The arrest comes as a young Gold Coast mother on maternity leave was charged with controlling the finances of a multimillion-dollar underground cannabis operation.

Sarah Hannan, 27, and her husband Ben poured more than $1 million cash into 17 different accounts in two years to create the illusion of a family business, police claim.

The couple bought a mansion, investment properties worth $2.2 million and cars including an Audi - assets which are all now frozen as alleged criminal proceeds, the Courier Mail reports.

Mr Hannan and his brother tended to the hydroponic crops in hidden bunkers as Mrs Hannan funnelled the profits through a web of accounts, trusts, companies and properties, police allege in documents filed with the Queensland Supreme Court.

She also handled any loan applications and payments to her brother-in-law.

Police phone taps allegedly recorded Mrs Hannan discussing with her husband and brother-in-law day-to-day financial operations associated with their alleged cannabis crop.

She is the first woman charged under Queensland's Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment act, giving her an extra 15 years jail if she is convicted of drug trafficking and supply.

Mr Hannan, as the alleged leader of a criminal organisation, potentially faces an extra 25 years.

It is not known if the cases are linked.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2014/04/15/10/51/public-servants-involved-in-drug-ring-police
 
Accused kingpin ‘was funnelling money to Filipino girlfriend’

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AN ACCUSED boss of a fly-in-fly-out cannabis ring allegedly funnelled drug profits to his girlfriend who was living in the Philippines while his crew smuggled up to $1 million of weed a week.

Justin Adam Corke, who faces an extra 25 years’ jail as an alleged criminal gang leader, has had his joint bank account with Philippines-born Reesheil Doloconag Aberilla frozen in a criminal proceeds application.

Corke also faces losing his 4.5ha property at Wongawallan, in the Gold Coast Hinterland, and a Nissan Patrol if convicted of running a syndicate that allegedly flew as much as $15 million worth of cannabis from Melbourne to Queensland over a period of six months.

Ms Aberilla was living with Corke on a three-month tourist visa when police raided his Helensvale home, finding $100,000 in his wardrobe and $50,000 under his kitchen cupboard.

A detective alleged in Supreme Court documents that “Corke has often sent money to Aberilla in the Philippines to support her while she has been living there”.

“I believe the funds held in this account have been sourced from Corke,” the detective said.

Police alleged that after more than 4500 phone calls and texts intercepted over a six-month investigation, “Corke can be clearly identified as the syndicate leader in control of the illicit enterprise”.

They alleged one of Corke’s “subordinates” flew to Melbourne within hours of a customer asking for 40 pounds (18kg) of cannabis on February 19.

He returned the next day with 50 pounds (22.6kg) of cannabis in two red suitcases, with police seizing both the suitcases and the drugs at the customers’ house.

Two of Corke’s other associates each rented homes in Victoria, “where it is suspected they organised to take delivery of cannabis for importation in Queensland”.

Corke allegedly rented a safe house at Pimpama, north of Helensvale, where a ring of CCTV cameras kept watch outside while Corke and his associates bagged up cannabis with an industrial cryovac machine, keeping a shotgun and a rifle handy.

Investigators said airline records showed that Corke’s three associates returned from Melbourne with as much as 2.5 tonnes of cannabis over 52 trips.

Police claim the group sold each pound for between $2800 and $3500, with customers from southeast Queensland to Gladstone and Mackay.

http://www.news.com.au/national/que...ipino-girlfriend/story-fnii5v6w-1226885623299
 
Trade in drugs, steroids is personal: trainer Lee Clark of Fitness First Bondi Platinum allegedly involved in drug distribution

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POLICE believe a personal trainer at an elite Sydney gym, arrested following the discovery of $600,000 worth of drugs, is one of the eastern suburbs’ major players in cocaine, steroids and ecstasy distribution.

Lee Clark, who worked out of the Fitness First Bondi Platinum gym at Bondi Junction, was arrested allegedly in possession of $155,000 in cash as well as the major quantity of drugs.

Bondi Platinum is used by Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman when they are in Sydney but is not under investigation.

It is understood Clark’s client list will also be scrutinised as part of ongoing inquiries by detectives. Clark was a franchisee personal trainer who has since been suspended by Fitness

First, which is assisting police.

TWO ARRESTS, DRUGS SEIZED AS POLICE SMASH MAJOR OPERATION

Clark came to light during an investigation by Operation Polaris, a joint task force between the NSW Police Force, Australian Federal Police, Australian Customs and Border Protection Service and Australian Crime Commission investigating organised crime on the Sydney waterfront.

The 37-year-old Clark kept a low profile and was not a target of the investigation, codenamed Nagami, but was linked to a man working on the Sydney waterfront who was allegedly involved in the supply of illicit drugs.

“The quantities seized lead us to believe this is a major drug distribution ring in the eastern suburbs,’’ said Detective Superintendent Nick Bingham, Commander of Polaris.

“Part of the ongoing investigation will be the supply network involved in the alleged drug syndicate.”

Clark, a UK national who has been living in Australia for the past two decades, was arrested at his Randwick apartment three weeks ago. A Vaucluse man was also charged with a number of drug related charges and granted bail.

Clark was refused bail on March 27 on charges of trafficking in marketable quantity of a controlled drug and dealing with the proceeds of crime to reappear before the courts in June.

Police allege a rented garage in Sutherland St, Paddington was used as a “safe house’’ to store the drugs where they found nearly 1kg of MDMA, capable of producing about 4000 ecstasy tablets with an estimated street value of $200,000, 500g of cocaine with a street value of $400,000, a large amount of prescription medication, a large amount of steroids, cash, a hydraulic press and other items believed to have been used in the manufacture of illegal drugs were seized by police.

They also impounded $155,000 cash, $120,000 of which was found in a safety deposit box at a storage facility at Camperdown.

A unit on Kimberley St, Vaucluse was searched and a small amount of methylamphetamine, steroids, electronic equipment and identification documents were found.

At Clark’s St Marks Rd unit in Randwick they allegedly found numerous resealable bags containing powder (suspected of being an illicit drug), prescription drugs, a large amount of steroids, cash, electronic equipment and financial documents.

Source: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...rug-distribution/story-fni0cx12-1226890741866
 
Wangaratta drug trafficker preyed on young

A MULTIMILLION-dollar drug syndicate centred on Wangaratta used gangster-style violence to incite fear, the Melbourne County Court heard yesterday.

It lured young people with the promise of money and a luxury lifestyle.

Aaron Shane Dalton, 32, headed the methamphetamine and ecstasy syndicate that had tentacles reaching across the North East and into southern NSW.

Yesterday he pleaded guilty to two counts of trafficking a commercial quantity of ice and MDMA, recklessly causing serious injury, reckless conduct endangering serious injury, affray and arson.

Plea hearings before Judge Michael Bourke by Dalton and others continue today.

Four of Dalton’s associates, including his brother and ex-girlfriend, also pleaded guilty yesterday, with four others sentenced last year.

Judge Bourke said the syndicate had used fear to intimidate those outside and within its net for almost a year.

A young butcher was shot in his home.

Petrol bombs were thrown into two houses where children were sleeping.

A car was set alight, another run off a road and into a tree.

Many assaults were made as the gang sought control and to recover drug debts.

“This drug seems to bring about quite extreme acts of intimidation,

Dalton recruited young men and women from “normal” Wangaratta families who usually had no criminal record and were attracted to the promise of drugs, money and lifestyle.

Less likely to attract police attention, they were used to book luxury accommodation on Lake Hume and hotel rooms in Albury to weigh and package ice, allegedly worth millions of dollars, that was collected from Canberra and Sydney.

They were told to hire cars to take drugs to dealers in places such as Wodonga, Yarrawonga, Myrtleford, Corowa, Rutherglen, Wangaratta and Shepparton.

Others, like Muay Thai fighter Dean Griggs, 24, of Melton, were recruited as “muscle”. Griggs was jailed a minimum of two years in October.

Drugs and cash were secreted away, buried in bush or backyards, including Dalton’s grandmother’s home.

Dalton controlled his empire closely through strict rules, threats and violence on both his members and those on the periphery, including his recruits’ families.

“These people were quite prepared to go to extreme lengths to manage, develop and protect their enterprise,” Judge Bourke said.

Dalton’s ex-girlfriend Rebecca Howarth, 24, of Erina in NSW, moved to Albury to escape an abusive relationship and started dating Dalton, a man who was “as nice as anyone had ever been” to her.

The court heard Howarth did not use ice.

There was also Wangaratta man Jai Trevor Montgomery, 26, nicknamed “Peg” because of his missing limb, who wanted to be liked and reached out to find friendship.

At 18, he found a mate in Dalton, and the pair went from getting tattoos together to using drugs.

In court yesterday, his mother Leonie Montgomery described how ice had transformed her son.

“He was drug-affected, he was dirty, had picked holes in his face,” she said.

“You couldn’t speak to him because he was so erratic.”

Montgomery pleaded guilty to trafficking a commercial quantity of ice and MDMA, possessing a drug of dependence and arson.

Howarth pleaded guilty to trafficking ice and MDMA.

Justin Huck Verry, 20, pleaded guilty to trafficking a commercial quantity of ice and trafficking MDMA.

Joshua Dalton, 27, pleaded guilty to trafficking a commercial quantity of ice, using a drug of dependence and dealing with the proceeds of crime.

http://www.bordermail.com.au/story/2312199/wangaratta-drug-trafficker-preyed-on-young/?cs=53
 
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