‘Hectic’: House flipping accused drug kingpin’s texts, associates

A Brisbane carpenter is accused of being a drug kingpin with associates including a crane driver and reality TV contestant, with details of a 1000km road trip to deliver drugs to a southeast Queensland house revealed in court. SEE THE AN0M MESSAGES

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A rich young Brisbane house flipper turned alleged drug kingpin is accused of hiring a Bachelorette contestant to drive $660,000 worth of cocaine 1000km to Queensland before being busted in the “sting of the century”.

New details of Australia’s largest ever crime bust, Operation Ironside, have been revealed in court documents in which police allege 33-year-old Wilston father Christopher John Spurling was a high-level wholesale drug trafficker.

The Australian Federal Police and FBI operation has seen more than 100 people charged as well as the seizure of 3.7 tonnes of drugs and $45 million in dirty cash, after police planted mobile phones into alleged syndicates and monitored their communications through the encrypted app AN0M.

Details of the police claims against Adelaide-born Spurling were revealed in documents filed in the Supreme Court in Brisbane as part of his successful bail application on June 22 on charges of trafficking in cannabis and ice and gun trafficking.

Spurling, who is engaged to a lawyer from top Brisbane firm Gadens, is alleged to have overseen the transportation of 2kg of cocaine from Bankstown in Sydney by ex-Bachelorette contestant Samuel Colin Minkin on May 13, according to court documents.

The cocaine, which police argue was owned by Spurling, was allegedly transported by 22-year-old Minkin and Aaron Mark Hyde, 39, from Eudlo in NSW, to the drug ring’s safe-house, a historic Queenslander home at Ocean View, one hour northwest of Brisbane.

Neither Minkin nor Hyde has been charged over alleged cocaine transportation, but are facing separate charges over the alleged supply of a large amount of cannabis.

Police allege the cocaine was prepared for sale by being cut, or diluted, with a cheap white powdery substance.

Spurling is alleged to have discussed with an unnamed associate whether the cocaine would be cut with an animal drug called Levisamole, because the usual cutting agent borax was unavailable, according to messages he allegedly exchanged over AN0M.

Spurling’s associate allegedly warned the former carpenter that although the animal drug was readily available to buy on eBay it had been linked to an outbreak of flesh-eating disease in New York and Los Angeles, according to police allegations.

The associate said on May 14 he would arrange to order the Levisamole online “just so we have it”.

“Yeah looks hectic lol,” Spurling is alleged to have replied via AN0M message using the pseudonym “Capo”.

The cocaine was never cut with the animal drug, because four days after the conversation police raided the Ocean View safe house and seized it.

Spurling was allegedly disappointed by the raid, telling his alleged associate Benjamin Haylock: “Lost those bricks bro. They got seized in a raid.”

“Unsure if I’ll make it through this one. Near 700k for avo and I. I’m not well. Won’t be on here much. … walking away from all of this for a while mate,” Spurling allegedly wrote.

Spurling and his unnamed associate had been planning to use Borax, but the only brand they could find sold at hardware giant Bunnings was in flake form, not the white powder they needed.

They believed the flakes would make the cocaine “not look right”, as it needed to look “shiny”, the messages allegedly state.

Spurling was allegedly keen to get the cocaine ready for sale quickly because there was strong demand for the drug.

“As soon as we press it all it’s sold,” Spurling allegedly wrote.

Christopher John Spurling’s alleged associate Benjamin Haylock

Spurling and Benjamin Haylock, 41, an ex-crane driver formerly of Mermaid Waters on the Gold Coast, plasterer Ernesto Antonio Silva, 33, from Springfield, and Cody John Albert Kirby, 33, are accused of running a business selling $1 million worth of cannabis and large amounts of ice between April last year and June this year, as alleged major players on the Queensland drug scene.

They are also jointly charged with gun trafficking, for allegedly offering to sell weapons for $20,000 each between April and June this year.

Spurling and Haylock are alleged to have obtained several guns and Haylock is alleged to have sent a list of available guns including a Mauser pistol, two Webley colt 45 revolvers, a 12-gauge pump shotgun and an AR15, according to court documents.

The four co-accused were all arrested during simultaneous police raids on June 7 and all have since been granted bail.

Spurling’s $200,000 surety was put up by his brother-in-law Michael Thomas McVerry, a retired Queensland Reds rugby player, and his sister Louse McVerry, 41, a cleaner.

The couple put up their $1.3 million house in Peregian Springs on the Sunshine Coast to secure Spurling’s release.

Court documents also reveal how police were watching as Spurling allegedly rode an electric scooter while donning a full-head helmet to pick up drugs or cash around Brisbane, including near the four-bedroom $1.5 million home he rented in leafy Wilston in the city’s inner north.

Police allege the helmet and scooter were aimed at defeating police surveillance tactics.

They also reveal details of an alleged cash pick up by co-accused Ben Haylock in the trendy Fish Lane in South Brisbane as police watched, as well as an alleged cannabis drop at Logan Hyperdome and other alleged “dead drops” of cash or drugs in the Brisbane suburb of Sherwood.

Christopher John Spurling’s fiancee Sophie Louise Snape

Spurling was granted bail last month to live in Albany Creek with his lawyer fiancee Sophie Snape, who is on maternity leave from Gadens, their baby daughter and his father-in-law Damian Snape, 60.

The court heard he plans to work for his friend, builder Kirby Saunders from Saunders construction.

Last year Spurling flipped a mansion in Alderley, selling the Royal Parade home for $2.45 million, having purchased it for $805,000 four years earlier and renovated it, the court heard.

He was self-employed as the director of his own construction business CS Build pty ltd before his arrest, renovating and selling houses for profit.

When police raided university dropout Ben Haylock’s home in Mermaid Waters they allegedly found a Rolex Sea Dweller watch worth $US18,500, several Louis Vuitton duffel bags, as well as Louis Vuitton belts and sunglasses as well as a Gucci clutch bag and a cryptocurrency hardware wallet.

Haylock, who told the court he worked for construction company NCI as a rigger and crane operator for six years until March, is alleged to have sent messages using the pseudonym “butcher” via encrypted app AN0M.

He was granted bail on June 28 to live with his parents Mavis and Anthony Haylock in Paddington after his 74 year-old mother put up $200,000 surety secured by the $1.2 million family home, and Haylock’s fiancee, former Colliers real estate marketing manager and Inglis horse-stud PR spokeswoman Amy Gordon Clunes, 34, put up $50,000 in cash.

Haylock is alleged to have driven Clunes’ grey Mercedes-Benz A200 with her personalised registration plates to near Fish Lane in South Brisbane to pick up $145,000 in cash stuffed in an Aldi shopping bag from Kirby on June 1 as police watched, according to court documents.

Former Bachelorette contestant Samuel Minkin

Clunes told the court she is independently wealthy having been gifted a $1.2 million building in Fortitude Valley by her father in 2012 which she had sold a portion of and invested some of the proceeds in Bitcoin and some in buying a $500,000 apartment overlooking the ocean in Surfers Paradise with Haylock.

Haylock told the court he planned to work for his close friend Andrew Keogh who owns Fortitude Fitness in Fortitude Valley.

Keogh told the court Haylock would answer phones and sort bookings at the personal training studio on Barry Pde.

A ledger of drug sales dating back to May last year was found at an alleged drug safe house run by Cody Kirby, and is being examined, police allege in court documents.

Father of three, Ernesto Silva, who allegedly went by the pseudonym “Taco” on AN0M, was granted bail on June 16 after his cousin, a full-time Queensland state school teacher Virgilio Jovel, from Wellington Point, put up $100,000 surety.

Silva plans to work for plasterer Nezim Jukic from Pallara at construction sites around Brisbane.

Silva’s lawyer told his bail hearing that there was no evidence, other than the circumstantial finding of the phone, that Silva was the user of the phone loaded with the AN0M app.

“The allegations go no further than Silva being a customer of Haylock,” the lawyer told the court.

Minkin and Hyde were arrested in Byron Bay on May 28 by NSW police when they were in a VW van allegedly containing 166kg of cannabis worth $500,000 allegedly belonging to the Spurling-Haylock syndicate.

Police allege Haylock commented after the seizure that a $500,000 loss was manageable, and he had the potential to recoup the loss, but would have to change his transport method.

The four co-accused are due back in the Brisbane Magistrates Court next month.

They are not yet required to enter pleas to the charges.

Haylock’s lawyer told the court that it may take a number of years for his client to face trial given the enormity of the police operation.

The house in Mt Mee Rd, Ocean View

Originally published as ‘Hectic’: House flipping accused drug kingpin’s texts, associates