Operation Ironside drug courier Eddie Kadan jailed for role in 10kg methamphetamine haul

An Operation Ironside drug courier who transported 10kg of meth worth up to $17.5m, hoping to make a quick buck, has been jailed.

A drug courier who was offered a “decent amount of money” to transport 10kg of methamphetamine – worth up to $17.5m – has been jailed after his role was uncovered as part of Operation Ironside.

Eddie Kadan, 41, was in the midst of a drug and gambling addiction when he was contacted by a “friend of a friend” and asked to transport the drugs from Sydney to Goulburn.

In sentencing, District Court Judge Jane Schammer said Kadan had 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.

Social media photo of Eddie Kadan.

Eddie Kadan. Picture: Facebook.

He dropped the drugs, packed in ten plastic bowl containers weighing about 1kg each, to truck driver John Stephen Stevenson at the Goulburn Showgrounds in May last year while under the watchful eye of Australian Federal Police officers. The officers became aware of the illicit packages via intercepted messages on the encrypted AN0M application, which were being remotely monitored.

Stevenson, who was previously jailed for his role in the syndicate, brought the drugs back to South Australia.

He was stopped at the Yamba border crossing where the drugs were seized and he was arrested.

Kadan was arrested soon after, as the global underworld crime sting based off the encrypted AN0M application was made public.

ONE YEAR ON: EVERY SA IRONSIDE ARREST

The court previously heard neither he, nor Stevenson, were extensive users of the application, but each had been provided with devices to arrange the drug collection.

He pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking in a large commercial quantity of a controlled drug.

Judge Schammer said the drugs “had a very high street value” and were worth up to $17.5 million if sold in points.

She said that while Kadan’s role was “very much at the bottom end” of a much wider, serious and organised crime syndicate, the role of a drug courier was “an important link in the overall chain of drug dealing”.

She said the only appropriate penalty was a lengthy term of imprisonment.

“Drugs such as methamphetamine cause misery to those who are addicted to them, their families and to the wider community,” she said.

“Notwithstanding that your role in this offending was confined to transporting the drugs, your contribution played a role in facilitating what was extremely serious offending.”

After a 25 per cent discount for his early plea of guilty, Judge Schammer imposed a jail term of five years and three months with a “lower than usual” non-parole period of two years and four months.