Court told of Newcastle drug web
BY DAN PROUDMAN CHIEF POLICE REPORTER
27 Jan, 2010 04:00 AM
IT is the alleged drug network that fed off the Newcastle party scene's insatiable appetite for illicit drugs.
And it includes a member of a well-known Newcastle business family, a bikie gang "prospect", two chefs, a security guard, a former champion footballer and an illegal immigrant.
Details emerged yesterday of the players accused of heaping more than 27,000 ecstasy pills onto partying Novocastrians in three months in the lead-up to Christmas.
During those three months Strike Force Sloman detectives covertly watched and listened in on while intercepting more than 60,000 phone calls and text messages.
Newcastle Bail Court heard yesterday that the youngest of those charged, smash repair shop employee Zachary Aaron Carmichael, 19, admitted to police he had been supplying "large quantities" of ecstasy for about 18 months and "conceded that during one week he had made $15,000 cash".
A facts sheet tendered in court alleged Carmichael told police he had sold 900 ecstasy tablets the day before his arrest on Monday.
"In relation to the monies [he] has made from drug sales [Carmichael] stated that he has no money left as he spent it socialising and supporting friends," the facts sheet said.
Seven of the accused faced Newcastle Bail Court yesterday after being arrested in simultaneous raids across Newcastle and Sydney on Monday. Bail was refused in all cases.
Michael Hawcroft, 23, who is part of the family that owns Noahs on the Beach, was refused bail on Monday and was referred to in court yesterday as "top of the chain".
It was alleged in facts sheets tendered to court that Hawcroft supplied security guard Kyle Shepherd, 20, with large amounts of ecstasy.
Working out of his Hunter Street unit, Shepherd would sell the pills to Carmichael who would, in turn, use Crowne Plaza chef Ashley Josef Novotny, the court heard.
It is alleged Carmichael used Novotny's Wharf Road apartment as the storage unit for the drugs and cash, with Novotny's two flatmates, fellow chef Alex Thornton and illegal immigrant and Colombian national Jose Leonardo Diaz, also alleged to have helped in distributing the drugs.
The court heard the drug network's system involved each person down the chain being given a period of time to offload the drugs.
A facts sheet said Carmichael told police he would buy up to 6000 pills a time on credit from Shepherd and that he and Novotny had until Sunday to sell the pills and collect the money to return to Shepherd.
Former NSW Country rugby union representative Daniel Robert Johnson was also arrested on Monday. It is alleged he was an associate of Hawcroft and Shepherd.
NIGHT OUT: Alleged drug suppliers Michael Hawcroft and Kyle Shepherd at a night club last month.
