Man in his 20s pleads not guilty to charges of laundering $4m for the Comanchero motorcycle gang

A young man arrested under Operation Ironside was allegedly directed by a senior Comanchero as a “cashier” to launder more than $4m in drug money.

A young man in his early 20s arrested as part of Operation Ironside has pleaded not guilty to laundering more than $4m in fewer than two years.

On Friday, the young man, whose name is suppressed, pleaded not guilty to 22 charges of money laundering while his co-accused on one charge argued that charges ought to be dropped.

Magistrate John Wells heard prosecutors would allege the young man was acting at the instructions of a senior member of the Comanchero motorcycle gang.

“The prosecution case is that these offences took place against the background of a wider enterprise to traffic and manufacture methamphetamine,” the prosecutor said.

“The money the subject of the charge is alleged to have been the proceedings of that syndicate which was allegedly operated by the Comanchero motorcycle gang.”

The young man is accused of acting as a “cashier or courier” for the group – transporting and holding large amounts of cash.

Patches and colours seized from the home of an Adelaide member of the Comanchero in 2022

Court documents show the total amount the cashier is alleged to have laundered is $4,035,530 between December 2019 and June 2021 when the AN0M network was shut down.

“The messages are consistent with the (older man) directing (the younger man) which included the collection and distribution of money,” the prosecutor said.

“These directions also extended to telling him to contact other persons, attend certain locations and count the money.”

Despite the messages linking the two men, prosecutors said the older man, who is alleged to be a senior member of the gang, is jointly charged with only one count of money laundering.

The court heard the older man sent a message over AN0M to the cashier saying “I need $30k” in November, 2020.

The cashier allegedly went to the man’s inner suburban home and left the money under the seat of his car.

The cashier was jumpy – saying in a message he had seen a large number of “D’s” – slang for detectives in the neighbourhood at the time of the drop.

The man sent another message to the cashier saying “where is my money you left?”

But before it could be collected, police raided the house and seized the cash.

Bags of cash seized under the AFP-led Operation Ironside in SA. Picture: AFP

Later that day the man sent messages saying “Bro, I got raided, they took cash” and “I need bills (for f***’s sake)”.

The cashier allegedly sent messages to another senior member of the syndicate telling him of the raid.

Dominic Agresta, for the older man, argued that even if the AN0M messages were admissible, they could not prove his client laundered the cash.

He said his client had never properly received the money and it could not be proved from the messages that he knew the money was “tainted”.

The prosecutor argued the bulk of the messages showed the man was involved in a “lucrative drug syndicate” and was directing the cashier on what to do with the money.

Mr Wells agreed with the prosecution and found there was a case to answer.

Both men will be arraigned in the District Court later this year.