Operation Ironside: 17 SA criminals sentenced in three years after world’s largest police sting
Three years on from Resolution Day – the moment police swooped on the nation’s criminal underground – here’s the full list of South Australians sentenced for crimes.
Police & Courts
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It was the world’s largest police sting that rocked the nation’s criminal underground and saw 108 South Australians arrested after encrypted messages exposed their criminal activities.
Resolution Day – June 7, 2021 –saw hundreds arrested across Australia after the encrypted AN0M application was shutdown by police.
Three years on only 17 people have been sentenced in SA as part of Operation Ironside.
Most of the SA accused remain before the courts – some of whom won’t face trial until 2027.
Law Society of South Australia president Alex Lazarevich said the operation had put a “significant strain on the courts”.
Mr Lazarevich said the massive case load had highlighted holes in the state’s legal system with criminal matters taking two years to be finalised in courts.
He warned Ironside meant wait times are unlikely to improve anytime soon.
Mr Lazarevich said there was “urgent need for more prosecutorial resources, more court personnel and upgraded court facilities”.
“These were needed before Operation Ironside but the need has been heightened by this incredibly complex and resource-intensive case,” he said.
“Typically a criminal matter will take about two years to move through the courts, and the impact of Operation Ironside means these wait times are not likely to improve in the near future unless significant investments are made to enhance the state’s criminal justice system.
“This has adverse and far-reaching consequences for victims, defendants, witnesses and other court users.”
The delay have been made worse, according to Mr Lazarevich, as the federal Court of Criminal Appeal works to determine whether the encrypted messages were lawfully obtained by Australian police.
“The Court of Criminal Appeal is currently considering whether millions of text messages were lawfully obtained by police, or whether police required an interception warrant before obtaining them,” Mr Lazarevich said.
“There is a significant possibility that, whatever the court determines, the decision will be appealed to the High Court, further drawing out this case.”
Mr Lazarevich said the outcome of these cases will have “implications far beyond the South Australian justice system”.
“Jurisdictions across Australia are awaiting the outcome of Operation Ironside trials in South Australia, as they will have considerable implications for cases in other states,” he said.
Here are crimes of the 17 people sentenced in South Australia as part of Operation Ironside so far.
Rohan Wakefield
Sentence: Six years and nine months imprisonment. Three years and seven months non-parole.
Rohan Wakefield, 36, agreed to store weapons and drugs and act as a courier for a criminal organisation after leaving an unstable job at a city bar.
A search of Wakefield’s Newton home on January 12, 2020, uncovered a sawn-off shot gun, silencer, live ammunition and a modified self-loading pistol in an esky hidden in a plant pot at the rear of his ute.
A shopping bag, filled with bullets inside his roof and traces of methamphetamine were found in areas within the home.
In sentencing in the Supreme Court Justice Adam Kimber said Wakefield had been using the usernames “Hot Dicky” and “Mobster” on the AN0M application and knew he was working on behalf of a criminal organisation.
“You knew the firearms were for criminal activity. You may not have known precisely what activity,” he said.
“Conduct which knowingly supports ongoing organised criminal activity will be treated seriously.”
He had pleaded guilty to five offences including possessing firearms without a licence, possessing ammunition and a sound moderator without approval as well as a charge of trafficking in a controlled drug.
Lewis Farquhar
Sentence: 11 years, four months and 25 days imprisonment. Nine years and six weeks non-parole.
A talented soccer player turned “trusted” Operation Ironside drug runner was arrested among dozens of people early on June 7, 2021 when law enforcement agencies disabled the encrypted AN0M application.
Lewis Farquhar, 30, was living with his brother Stuart Farquhar in Mount Barker where they both received instructions, through AN0M, from senior figures in a criminal syndicate for retrieving, storing and transporting large amounts of methamphetamine and heroin.
In sentencing, District Court Judge Emily Telfer said Farquhar’s involvement in the distribution of the drugs was integral.
You were a trusted member of an active and profitable syndicate,” she said.
“You played an important role because you could be trusted with large amounts of product, but you could also be trusted with large amounts of cash.
“Your work enabled large quantities of drugs and money to move between places undetected.”
Judge Telfer said Farquhar met a truck carrying 20kg of methamphetamine from New South Wales at a sports facility in Mount Barker, where he collected the drugs and stored them.
They were subsequently distributed in separate 5kg lots over three weeks.
He had pleaded guilty to four counts of trafficking in large commercial quantity of a controlled drug and three counts of trafficking in a commercial quantity of a controlled drug.
Stuart Duncan Farquhar
Sentence: Re-sentenced to eight years, nine months and 10 days imprisonment. Seven years and eight days non-parole.
Stuart Duncan Farquhar, 33, played a large role in collecting and transporting large quantities of methylamphetamine and heroin “on behalf of a lucrative drug syndicate who communicated via the AN0M platform”.
The offending included the seizure of 2.377kg of methylamphetamine and 686g of heroin – an amount more than what is normally seized in SA in an entire year – located in a locked metal box in his Mount Barker bedroom.
Farquhar was originally jailed in August 2022 for four years, six months and 19 days with a non-parole period of three-years, seven months and 22 days after pleaded guilty to seven drug trafficking offences.
The Director of Public Prosecutions appealed against the sentence urging it to be increased in part to “serve as a precedent”.
The court had heard he bought a “specific vehicle fitted with a hidden compartment so that illicit drugs and money could be secreted while in transit”.
The judgment noted Farquhar was “a trusted member” of the syndicate who was paid “wages” for his involvement.
“His role was an integral and necessary part of a highly organised, lucrative syndicate, responsible for distributing vast amounts of methylamphetamine and heroin in South Australia,” the judgment noted.
Stefan Jozef Duncan Gawlik
Sentence: Six years, 10 months and 20 days imprisonment. Three years and eight months non-parole.
A “vital” drug trafficker arrested as part of Operation Ironside after arranging the purchase and delivery of 50 litres of fantasy for $20,000 cut.
Stefan Jozef Duncan Gawlik, 32, was under police surveillance in March 2021 when he collected a down payment of $35,000 from another man in Norwood before taking it to Morphett Vale in exchange for the drugs.
Linked to the Comanchero Motorcycle Gang, he was charged with trafficking 100L of the drug after being intercepted at a Fulham Gardens carpark.
Messages from the AN0M app showing Gawlik was intrinsically involved in selling the chemical between the group which imported the drug and a second drug syndicate.
Tyler Hernandez Brook
Sentence: Two years imprisonment. One year and two months non-parole. Suspended.
Tyler Brook, 34, was found by police tending a grow house for a large syndicate.
Police say Brook did not have an AN0M phone and was not a large player in an enterprise.
He has been looking for a place to live and was allowed to live in the Hackham grow house in exchange for the occasional tending of crops.
He pleaded guilty to cultivating a commercial crop of cannabis as well as diverting electricity and possessing prescribed equipment.
Robert Leigh Marshall, John Scott Hulse and Jason Howett-Elliott
Sentence: Four years, five months imprisonment. Two years and three months non-parole.
The trio were found at a Northfield drug house that was being used to package hundreds of kilograms of cannabis with police seizing 237kg worth as much as $760,000.
John Hulse, 48, Robert Marshall, 40, and Jason Howett-Elliott, 46, earnt a significant amount of money by helping package the drugs but were not considered to be top of the hierarchy.
All three were also charged with breaching bail after new AN0M devices were delivered to them while on bail so they could communicate with each other.
All three pleaded guilty early to a charge of trafficking a commercial quantity of cannabis and were given a significant sentencing discount.
Tereapii Pokoina
Sentence: Six years and 14 days imprisonment. Three years and 15 days non-parole.
Tereapii Pokoina, 49, used his employer’s business name to import 14kg of pure cocaine because he “loved that drug so much”.
The landscaper, from Hyde Park, used his employer’s address and arranged a bank transfer of just over $8000 to the overseas shipper.
The drugs, which were imported from Greece in August 2020, were hidden inside two welders.
Judge Rauf Soulio said it was a “difficult task” to sentence Pokoina because he was a man of otherwise good character.
“It is accepted that you were at the lower level of the known hierarchy but, nevertheless, your conduct was fundamental to the success of the importation,” he said.
“Without you, the drugs would not have made their way to Australia.”
Pokoina pleaded guilty to importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug.
Suppressed
Sentence: One year, three months and two weeks imprisonment. 10 weeks non-parole.
This alleged member of a large criminal syndicate pleaded guilty to being in possession of a handgun and 6928 rounds of ammunition.
The man told a court he found the gun in the home of a deceased friend and he had been intending to hand it in.
Judge Paul Cuthbertson said in sentencing he was “extremely dubious” about the man’s excuse.
The man has maintained his innocence on charges of manufacturing a large commercial quantity of MDMA.
Robert Brendon Rich
Sentence: Four years, 10 months and 13 days home detention.
Young farmer and FIFO worker Robert Brendon Rich was arrested in May 2021 and charged with multiple firearms offences and trafficking a small quantity of methamphetamine at his regional SA property.
The case against the man, 36, was based on security camera footage from the property showing associates coming and going from the farm with guns.
Another charge against Rich emerged from footage which showed him coming out of his house at 2.10am on April 22, 2021, holding a shotgun and pointing it at a car that had just arrived at his property.
A raid of Rich’s house revealed a loaded double-barrel shotgun hidden in a pair of overalls and 2.6g of methamphetamine.
George Awkar
Sentence: 16 years and 10 months imprisonment. 12 years and one month non-parole.
The former owner of a successful pizza bar and a prominent member in the Lebanese community was on the way to great things before a failed investment led him to use drugs.
George Awkar, 58, sold a portion of his restaurant – now under new ownership – after he was down $100,000 from a failed business in Lebanon.
The business owner was arrested as part of Operation Ironside on June 7, 2021 after police burst through the door of his Semaphore Park home and located 85g of methamphetamine and $80,000 in a suit case.
Awkar operated under the handle “Pizza” on the AN0M application and had been the middle man in a large drug syndicate.
He had pleaded guilty to 10 counts of money laundering and drug trafficking.
Timothy Shane Barkla
Sentence: Four years and two months imprisonment. 26 months non-parole. Suspended.
Timothy Barkla, 49, hid $57,000 worth of cocaine behind a microwave to help a family member and was also found in possession of a further two ounces of cocaine and a hydraulic press.
Barkla had no criminal record prior to using the AN0M app.
His sentence was suspended because of his “selfless” personality and clean criminal record.
He pleaded guilty to one count of having trafficked in a controlled drug at his home.
John Steven Stevenson
Sentence: Four years, six months, two weeks and five days imprisonment. Two years non-parole.
John Steven Stevenson, 28, the first South Australian to be sentenced over Operation Ironside.
Stevenson was arrested in May, before “resolution day”, after being stopped at Yamba, near the SA-NSW border.
Methamphetamine, worth up to $17.5m, was found in 10 plastic containers in a large storage bag and “secreted under the bed in the rear of the cabin of the prime mover”.
Judge Jane Schammer said Stevenson’s role was “very much at the bottom end” of the hierarchy but was still “extremely serious”.
He pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking a large commercial quantity of a controlled drug.
Damien John Fraser
Sentence: Eight years, three months imprisonment. Seven months and one week non-parole.
Damien Fraser, 50, was asked if he could “send some boys to torch” a business in Adelaide’s south western suburbs in an act of vengeance.
Fraser was asked by another Ironside accused if he could do a “huge solid” and recruit someone to firebomb the offices.
Judge Timothy Heffernan said the AN0M messages between the other accused and Fraser, who was known as “FYC Captain” on the platform, involved “a high degree of premeditation”.
As a favour, Fraser organised for another man to throw three molotov cocktails into separate windows at the heritage-listed building, which caused “severe damage” amounting to about $350,000.
He also arranged for that man to be paid $5000 for the attack, receiving nothing himself.
Fraser pleaded guilty to a charge of counselling or procuring a person to commit arson over the January 2021 attack.
Eddie Kadan
Sentence: Five years and three months imprisonment. Two years and four months non-parole.
Eddie Kadan, 42, worked as a drug courier and was offered a “decent amount of money” to transport 10kg of methamphetamine worth up to $17.5m.
Kadan, who was in the midst of a drug and gambling addiction, was contacted by a “friend of a friend” who asked him to transport the drugs from Sydney to Goulburn.
District Court Judge Jane Schammer said Kadan agreed to do the job because he “thought the monetary benefit outweighed the risk”.
“At the time you were addicted to cocaine and gambling and you needed money to fund those addictions,” she said.
Kadan pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking in a large commercial quantity of a controlled drug.
Alicia Alice Bartley
Sentence: Four years, five months and 24 days imprisonment. Two years, one month and 20 days non-parole.
Alicia Alice Bartley, 40, was arrested as part of Operation Ironside after she turned to selling methamphetamine to help fund her own addiction and to pay off a family member’s drug debt.
Bartley pleaded guilty to three counts of drug trafficking and a series of firearms offences relating to gel blasters found in her Angle Park home.
Bartley was using the handle “South Park” and sourcing methamphetamine from a series of wholesalers.
Young Drug Dealer aka OnlySilly
Sentence: Three years and nine months. One year and 11 months non-parole. Suspended.
Young drug dealer, aka OnlySilly, was caught near a school zone with cocaine, cash and MDMA.
An AN0M device was found in his home which revealed messages between him and a more senior drug dealer in a larger syndicate.
The young drug dealer, who operated under the handle OnlySilly, was able to move thousands of pills in only a few hours.
“OnlySilly” pleaded guilty to trafficking drugs in a school zone and handed a suspended sentence because of his progress towards rehabilitation, contrition and age.
Adam Burgess
Sentence: Three months imprisonment. Suspended.
Adam Burgess, 44, was sentenced for low level cannabis offending after police located the drug at his northern suburbs home.
The link between Burgess and other Ironside accused is unknown.
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