Accused darknet drug dealer Jonathon Grey jailed in secrecy after high-profile arrest outside top private school

HE was among Australia’s most wanted criminals, accused of being one of the country’s largest darknet drug suppliers. But to the Walford Anglican School community, he was just another dad picking up his girls … until detectives swooped.

HE was among Australia’s most wanted criminals, accused of being one of the country’s largest darknet drug suppliers.

Suspected Gold Coast kingpin Jonathon Grey, 41, fled to South Australia while on bail, and embedded his young family in Adelaide’s affluent inner south.

But instead of leading a quiet suburban life, the father of two established an extensive drugs operation from his Goodwood home, near his daughters’ elite private college.

The fugitive’s 11 months on the run dramatically ended in August last year when detectives arrested him, and his wife Kathleen Ann Grey, 46, during the afternoon school run.

The Advertiser has been told SA Police swooped at Walford Anglican School for Girls — which charges yearly fees of up to $28,175 — after a mother attending a Book Week parade recognised a most-wanted mugshot published that week.

Within hours of the Crime Stoppers call, Sturt CIB detectives arrested the pair without incident at Hyde Park, in front of shocked parents and students.

Jonathon and Kathleen Grey and containers of hallucinogenic mushrooms found in their Goodwood house.

They were jointly charged with trafficking in a large commercial quantity of a controlled drug.

Prosecutors, however, later dropped charges against Kathleen.

Her husband, named in a national most-wanted fugitive campaign dubbed Operation Roam, pleaded guilty in the District Court to one count of possessing a controlled drug for sale.

But key details on his crimes remain a secret after a judge heard a pre-sentencing hearing behind closed doors in March.

Judge Gordon Barrett later imposed a prison sentence of one year and nine months in a “closed court” — banning the public from attending without any debate.

Refusing to suspend the jail term or allow it to be served on home detention, he ordered Grey spend at least 11 months behind bars.

Details can only be reported after Magistrate Maria Panagiotidis last week agreed to an Advertiser request to lift a long-standing secrecy order during legal argument over his extradition.

Queensland Police believe Grey is one of the country’s biggest “darknet drug suppliers” of methamphetamine, heroin and cannabis. He had been bailed twice.

Court documents state that while searching the family’s Adelaide home, detectives found psilocybin — a hallucinogenic mushroom — in various amounts alongside syringes and instructions on how to grow drugs.

Senior police last year said it was “unusual” to discover such drugs being hydroponically grown here.

Police also found books on Pablo Escobar, the Colombian drug baron, and the darknet, which are parts of the internet only accessible through specialised software.

Thousands of dollars’ worth of Apple products were seized as well as two Rolex watches, valued at $7950 and $9950 each.

Police also found a false identification with the name Jack David Grey, bank cards and a birth certificate, as well as forms for a Victorian driver’s licence.

Grey admitted to police being drunk when he was arrested but was concerned for his two daughters, who were allowed to stay in the boarding house before their grandmother flew them back to Queensland.

Detectives swooped on Jonathon and Kathleen Grey outside their daughters’ prestigious private school.

He was also concerned about their pet cat Candy, which was in their house. “I just want to say something, at the house, that is all my responsibility,” he told police.

He also tried to disguise his handwriting, taking an hour to write out five lines of text. Grey is eligible for parole next month, when he will likely be extradited back to Queensland to face court.

He will likely be rearrested upon his release after the magistrate ruled she could not order his extradition.