Director of Public Prosecutions release $874,000 back Ironside accused’s mum after seizing it last year

Almost $1m seized from an account belonging to the mother of an Ironside accused has been given back. But she can’t keep a BMW.

Almost a $1m in cash will be returned to the mother of a man arrested as part of Operation Ironside and accused of widescale drug trafficking and firearms offences.

On Wednesday, the Director of Public Prosecutions told the Supreme Court an agreement had been reached with the mother’s lawyer to unfreeze $874,000 held in an account in her name.

The funds, the largest single cash seizure as part of the Operation Ironside asset seizure and confiscation campaign, were initially linked to the accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Court documents lodged in July last year as part of an effort to freeze millions in properties, cash, luxury and vintage cars and cryptocurrency, showed the bank account had been used for large deposits and withdrawals.

The mother had last received a wage in October 2016, but hundreds of thousands of dollars were flowing into and out of the account between December 2020 and February 2021.

On February 24, 2021, $330,000 was withdrawn from the account and later the same day a further $800,000 was deposited in the account.

The DPP initially alleged the money had come from a company linked to the woman’s son.

He was later arrested and charged with multiple counts of trafficking large amounts of methamphetamine.

During the hearing on Monday the DPP said they were relinquishing the money but not a white BMW registered in the mother’s name.

The court heard the DPP maintained the woman’s son was in control of the car.

A separate bank account containing $180,000 was partially restrained and a white 2015 Porsche station wagon was seized by police.

Several Rolex watches, worth tens of thousands of dollars, were seized, along with $10,500 in cash at his home and 12 mobile phones.

Emily Cousins, for the mother, said she did not consent to the order but could not argue against the car being restrained.

The man was among more than a dozen Operation Ironside accused to find themselves in the Supreme Court after being arrested with their worldly possessions on the line.

A review of hundreds of pages of court documents revealed more than $30m of assets have been seized.

The most recent seizure application was granted on Monday when the District Court restrained a $700,000 Clearview home linked to accused drug trafficker Athanasios Anagnostopoulos along with $9000 in cash found at his home.