Fire 'revealed huge drug laboratory'
June 25, 2007 03:24pm
A FACTORY fire in western Sydney led police to the largest secret drug laboratory in Australia, a Sydney court has been told.
In the committal hearing for Steven Wayne Spaliviero, 44, at Sydney's Central Local Court today, the Crown alleged that DNA from the Sydney luxury car dealer had been found on a pair of designer shoes found at the Riverstone factory.
Mr Spaliviero is charged with knowingly taking part in the manufacture of a prohibited drug in greater than commercial quantities.
As well as the DNA evidence allegedly linking Mr Spaliviero to the lab, he also allegedly used a false name to buy precursor chemicals and stainless steel equipment found at the factory in the months leading up to the fire.
Crown prosecutor Steve Higgins said the search of the Wellington Street factory revealed 40 kilograms of MDMA (ecstasy) and precursor chemicals in the process of being manufactured into ecstasy tablets. The drugs were worth $127 million, he said.
Other items left behind at the factory included gardening gloves and a pair of Louis Vuitton shoes that implicated Mr Spaliviero, Mr Higgins told the court.
"Forensic testing of a number of items at the property, including a pair of shoes, provided a match with the DNA of the defendant,'' he said.
Police were tipped off when fire crews attended the factory after neighbours spotted smoke pouring from the building, Mr Higgins said.
Under cross-examination, the chief investigating police officer, Detective Senior Constable Mandy Hancock, revealed a fireman had spoken to a man at the factory who had directed them to the location of the fire and then disappeared.
However, Ms Hancock said no-one who saw or spoke to that person had identified him as Mr Spaliviero.
Defence lawyer, Stephen Shirress, SC, said police had no evidence directly linking Mr Spaliviero to the factory on the night of the fire.
"In terms of evidence, is there identification evidence which suggests Mr Spaliviero was at the factory on the night of the fire?'' Mr Shirress asked.
"No, not in those terms,'' Ms Hancock replied.
She told the court Mr Spaliviero had been arrested a year after the lab was discovered, after police has obtained mobile phone analyses linking him with a phone used to buy the precursor chemicals, and samples of his DNA to compare with what they had found at the factory.
A second suspect, Jeff Klower, whose fingerprints had been found on pill-presses in the factory, had eluded police and was believed to have left the country shortly after the fire, Constable Hancock said.
The committal hearing, which began today, is expected to last up to three days.
