Operation Ironside challenge granted special leave to appeal to the country’s Highest Court

Alleged Ironside crime figures had a legal win after special leave was granted to challenge that the messages used in the country’s largest police sting were illegally intercepted.

Alleged crime figures have had a legal win after special leave was granted to challenge that millions of messages used in the country’s largest police sting were illegally intercepted.

Hundreds of people, from alleged drug dealers, bikies and organised crime figures, were arrested on June 7, 2021, under Operation Ironside, which involved police surveilling users of the AN0M app for illegal activity.

During an application to revoke the bail of a key AN0M player, Andrew John Benz, the court heard special leave was granted last week to appeal to the country’s Highest Court on the admissibility of the messages.

In November last year, The Advertiser revealed South Australia’s Court of Appeal had been asked to rule on the legality of millions of messages sent and received by users of the encrypted app.

In June, the Court of Appeal ruled the messages taken from AN0M to charge two men charged with firearms offences under Operation Ironside – both of whom can’t be named for legal reasons – were not illegally intercepted, backing up a Supreme Court decision.

The AN0M logo shown on a phone before it was disabled and shut down. Photo by Olivier MORIN/AFP

In April last year Justice Adam Kimber ruled the Australian Federal Police had not illegally intercepted the messages but had been instead surveilling them.

SA has led the legal challenges to the Ironside arrests after the case of the two men was fast-tracked to the Supreme Court for the challenge to Ironside’s legality.

Lawyers for the two men – alleged to be senior organised crime figures – had argued the AN0M app was an illegal interception and the AFP were acting unlawfully in monitoring the conversations between their clients and others.

In separate published judgments, Justice Kimber ruled the AFP had not acted improperly during the investigation and also that the accused were not placed at an “unfair disadvantage” by having the messages admitted.

Most of the SA Ironside accused remain before the courts – some of whom won’t face trial until 2027.

On Wednesday, Patrick Schaefer, for the prosecution, told the court the appeal related to whether or not the AFP’s evidence amounted to it being intercepted as it was passing over a telecommunications system.

The court heard the hearing was anticipated to be heard in March or April.

Benz – who has pleaded guilty to two counts of large commercial drug trafficking – was allowed to remain on bail to await the outcome of the High Court decision.

The court heard Benz would also not be sentenced for his admitted drug trafficking charges until after the outcome of his trial in 2026 for multiple counts of drug trafficking and money laundering.