SA Police seize luxury cars, properties in Operation Ironside sting
Police have dismantled a “trans-national” meth and cocaine ring in SA and caused “mass disruption” to the Comancheros in the past 18 months under Operation Ironside.
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Nearly 100 people have been arrested and charged in the past 18 months in South Australia under the joint AFP/SA Police Operation Ironside, AFP Commander Erica Mirren says.
It includes 73 alleged SA members and associates of the Comacheros, which has caused “mass disruption” to the outlaw motorcycle gang, she said.
The operation used the hacked AN0M platform, which allowed police across the world to read messages sent be criminals and thwart their plans.
Ms Mirren said the AFP had busted a “trans-national organised crime group” with links to Europe that allegedly trafficked drugs into and across Australia.
Twenty-two men had been arrested and charged over the importing and trafficking of meth and cocaine, she said, and millions of dollars had been allegedly transported.
In total in SA over the past 18 months, the operation has seen 95 people charged, three drugs labs shut down - including two industrial-sized and capable of manufacturing $25m amphetamine a week - and 30 firearms and almost $2m in cash seized.
As well, 315 electrical devices have been seized, including phones and computers, through which experts will be “trawling and searching”, said SAPOL Assistant Commissioner Peter Harvey.
“This is onoing - this is day one of the rest of this job,” he said.
Mr Harvey thanked the hundreds of police officers who have worked tirelessly on the operation “often missing valuable time at home with their families”.
It comes as senior police allege members of the Comancheros conspired to murder a man by gunning him down with a machinegun on The Parade at Norwood.
They say the planned assasination was one of several prevented by Operation Ironside, Australia’s largest covert police sting operation.
On Tuesday, it was revealed South Australian and federal police had arrested and charged 48 people the day before and seized more than $1.8m in cash and millions of dollars worth of drugs as part of the largest sting operation in Australian history.
Senior police have revealed SA Police raided almost 80 properties and arrested and charged 40 people on Monday as part of Operation Ironside, with federal police charging another eight people after raiding more than a dozen properties.
The individuals are facing charges ranging from manufacturing and trafficking drugs, participating in a criminal organisation, firearms offences and conspiracy to murder.
A further 33 South Australians have been arrested through the operation since February 2020.
In total, police have seized 90kg of high-grade methamphetamine, with a street value of $45m, 50L of fantasy, 350kg of cannabis and 10,000 ecstasy tablets.
Two industrial-level clandestine labs were also uncovered, one of which had the capacity to produce $25m of amphetamine each week.
Detectives have also restrained 23 properties worth more than $11m dollars, along with 67 vehicles – including 15 Harley Davidson motorcycles, a luxury Mercedes, two Lamborghinis, a Bentley, boats and jet skis, worth a total of more than $3m.
More than $1.8m in cash was seized, while police have restrained a further $1.6m held in bank accounts, which will be subject to forfeiture following any convictions.
Other items seized include two Rolex watches worth $61,000 and $85,000 each, a Louis Vuitton collection worth $100,000 and wine collections worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
SA Police Assistant Commissioner Peter Harvey said on Tuesday 460 SAPOL officers had been involved in the operation.
He said the seizures showed that those arrested had “a lifestyle bought and fuelled by crime”.
“This complex, long standing investigation has struck a blow to the foundations of organised crime in South Australia,” he said.
He said a number of the arrests allegedly involved office bearers or influential people within the Comanchero Outlaw Motorcycle Gang, which had been a subject to investigations as part of Operation Ironside since early last year.
“The focus on the Comanchero is simple – it’s because they are dangerous, they are a risk to the South Australian community and across Australia,” he said.
“We anticipate the strike that was made will have a particular i``mpact on the (Comancheros’) structure and its capacity to continue as a criminal enterprise.”
All of those arrested on Monday were expected to appear in court by the end of Tuesday.
The arrests are a result of a covert Federal Police/SA Police operation dubbed Ironside in which criminals were tricked into using an encrypted device named AN0M, which they used to communicate and plan crimes – believing their messages were safe from law enforcement.
Over the course of the operation police Australia-wide used information from 25 million messages to foil hundreds of crimes.
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