Operation Ironside accused allegedly stashed $190K at girlfriend’s house and $30K in a senior bikie’s car, court told

A 20-year-old arrested in Operation Ironside feared he was “red hot” and being tailed by police so he stashed a fortune at his girlfriend’s house, a court has heard.

An Operation Ironside accused stashed almost $200,000 at his girlfriend’s house and believed he was “red hot” with police on his tail after leaving a wad of cash in a senior bikie’s car, a court has heard.

The 20-year-old man, whose identity is suppressed, is seeking release on home-detention bail.

During a hearing in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Wednesday, a prosecutor said the man was under surveillance in November when he left $30,000 under a seat in a car belonging to a senior Comanchero bikie gang member.

The prosecutor said the man believed he spotted detectives after leaving the house and, using the encrypted AN0M application, said he was “red hot” and “attracting the attention of the police”.

“For that reason, in order to not compromise the cashflow he was responsible for holding, he was taking and distributing it to various locations including a ‘safe house’,” the prosecutor said.

The court was told police allege they found $8000 in the man’s Jeep, and almost $200,000 in his girlfriend’s apartment, on June 7 – dubbed the “resolution day” of Operation Ironside.

“The sum of $190,000 or so was found in the bedroom allegedly used by the girlfriend where (the man) was known to stay,” the prosecutor said.

“In the days preceding his arrest, surveillance observed (the man) coming and going from that address.”

The court heard the man’s girlfriend had not been charged and had not provided a sworn statement to police.

The man is yet to enter pleas to two counts of knowingly engaging in money laundering.

The prosecutor said the man was believed to have had multiple phones linked to the AN0M platform.

“These devices have an approximately six-month subscription and on review users will discard a device for various reasons … such as suspicions that a device might be compromised,” the prosecutor said.

He said four phones, including one with the AN0M app, linked to the man were seized during the June raids.

Marie Shaw QC, for the man, told the court the case against her client was “doomed to fail” because prosecutors would be unable to prove the $190,000 found at his girlfriend’s house did not belong to anyone else.

She said surveillance of her client was not able to “exclude anybody else in that house” from being responsible for the cash.

Magistrate John Wells asked prosecutors to provide more information showing how the man could be linked to his alleged AN0M usernames and messages.

The bail application was adjourned until later this month.