Apostle Broikos accused of selling phones with the encrypted AN0M app installed, court hears

A recently graduated private schoolboy from Burnside is alleged to have sold phones using an encrypted app secretly being run by the police, a court has heard.

A baby-faced former private school boy accused of being part of two large drug syndicates has had charges against him upgraded.

Apostle Broikos, 18, was arrested as part of Operation Ironside, which resulted in the arrest of almost 100 South Australians following statewide raids.

The administrative move came during the same court sitting as a 25-year-old man became the first Operation Ironside arrest to plead guilty.

Mr Broikos, of Burnside, appeared in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Tuesday where he applied for home detention bail.

Magistrate John Wells heard from the prosecution that an initial charge of manufacturing a controlled drug had been upgraded to manufacturing a large commercial quantity of methylamphetamine.

David Edwardson QC, for Mr Broikos, told the court a clandestine lab in Morphett Vale had been raided in 2020.

“11kg of ephedrine, 16kg of a cutting agent which I’m not going to try and pronounce, 8kg of iodine and 238g of methamphetamine were found at the house,” he said.

But Mr Edwardson said there was nothing on the information he had seen which linked his young client to the house.

Social media photos of Apostle Broikos, the youngest person arrested in South Australia as part of Operation Ironside. He is charged with serious drug offences.

Police allege Mr Broikos facilitated the delivery of cash to one of the men accused of running the lab as well as assisting in the supply of chemicals.

After a police affidavit was presented to the court, Mr Edwardson said his client was also accused of distributing or selling phones with the encrypted AN0M app installed.

“But that is not illegal and it can’t stand in the way of him getting bail,” he said.

Mr Broikos is also charged with trafficking in a large commercial quantity of a controlled drug at Yamba, in the eastern Riverland, on May 19, 2021.

Neither Mr Broikos nor his co-accused have entered pleas to the charge.

The AN0M app, which was being monitored internationally by law enforcement agencies since 2018, was the grounds for the arrest of people in Adelaide on a variety of charges.

Mr Wells said Mr Broikos was “clearly a very young man”.

A letter of reference from his high school, St Ignatius, was tendered to the court outlining his academic achievements.

Social media photos of Apostle Broikos, the youngest person arrested in South Australia as part of Operation Ironside. He is charged with serious drug offences.

Social media photos of Apostle Broikos, the youngest person arrested in South Australia as part of Operation Ironside. He is charged with serious drug offences.

Mr Wells ordered a home detention suitability report be completed to assess whether Mr Broikos was an appropriate candidate for release.

He will appear in court again next week.

During the same sitting John Stevenson, 25, of Grace Plains, pleaded guilty to trafficking in a large commercial quantity of a controlled drug.

Stevenson will appear in the District Court in August.