Daniel Thomas Nehme released on bail after being arrested as part of Operation Ironside and charged with drug trafficking
An Adelaide businessman has been charged with trafficking kilos of drugs as part of a larger syndicate spread across Adelaide and operating through encrypted AN0M phones.
Police & Courts
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An Adelaide businessman has become the state’s latest Operation Ironside arrest with the tow truck business owner accused of trafficking kilograms of fantasy and other drugs.
Daniel Nehme, 37, of Edwarstown, was granted bail last week after being charged with four counts of trafficking a large commercial quantity of fantasy, GHB and GBL and one count of basic trafficking of methamphetamine.
Police allege Mr Nehme’s offences occurred in Lonsdale and Adelaide between August, 2020 and February 21, 2021.
He was arrested last week and initially held in custody before he was found suitable for home-detention bail.
Mr Nehme lists his occupation on several social media accounts as the managing director of a towing company based out of the southern suburbs.
He also has ties to a southern suburbs building restoration company.
Mr Nehme’s arrest followed ongoing analysis of millions of messages sent over the encrypted AN0M app which was covertly being watched by Australian Federal Police.
Almost two years on from June 7, 2021, when the app was shut down and hundreds of people were arrested across the country, the investigation is continuing with more arrests being made and additional charges being laid.
Mr Nehme’s bail conditions ban him from having any contact with alleged members of a larger drug syndicate accused of operating out of Adelaide.
Members of that syndicate are facing charges of trafficking large commercial quantities of drugs, laundering vast quantities of cash and running a pill press capable of making thousands of MDMA tablets.
AN0M messages relating to the alleged syndicate, but released in a court case separate to the allegations against Mr Nehme, show the alleged syndicate was organised and extensive, according to police.
The alleged heads of the syndicate provided detailed instructions to a man acting as a drug cook and another who was employed as a driver, police allege.
A charge sheet released by the court in relation to the 81 counts facing the syndicate as a whole and excluding Mr Nehme’s charges alleges they were moving large amounts of methamphetamines, ecstasy, cocaine, fantasy and pseudoephedrine.
Members of that syndicate have pleaded not guilty to those charges.
A condition of Mr Nehme’s bail is that he is to have a basic analog phone and is expressly prohibited from having any encrypted devices.
Mr Nehme will next appear in court in April.
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