Truck driver who was allegedly running cash and drugs along a ‘drug corridor’ refused bail in the Supreme Court

A truck driver arrested as part of Operation Ironside was allegedly running millions of dollars of cash and methamphetamine in a “drug corridor” from Sydney.

A truck driver who allegedly ran methamphetamine from Sydney to Adelaide as part of a “corridor” supplying much of the city’s demand for the drug has been refused bail in the Supreme Court.

The man, whose name has been suppressed ahead of expected trial, was caught with $2.75m at a truck stop in Yass in 2020.

But detectives and prosecutors were coy with the NSW courts, refusing to disclose more details of the investigation into the truck driver which could have undermined Operation Ironside – a nationwide crime sting.

As a result, the truck driver pleaded guilty to possessing the cash but the NSW courts accepted he was only delivering it across state lines.

$2.75m seized from a truck driver who was allegedly running a drug corridor between Adelaide Sydney. Picture: NSW Police

In 2021, a judge of the Queanbeyan Local Court indicated he would sentence the driver to an intensive correction order which would see him remain in the community on strict home detention.

He was ordered to go to Tweed Heads and report to police ahead of the sentence being handed down, but instead fled NSW for South Australia.

During a bail application last week, Bill Boucaut QC, for the driver, said the decision to flee in the face of a lenient sentence indicated his client was not thinking clearly.

“If one does not grab that offer and run with it then one would have to query the mental state of the person making the decision, which is precisely what we’ve got here,” he said.

$2.75m seized from a truck driver who was allegedly running a drug corridor between Adelaide Sydney. Picture: NSW Police.

A prosecutor told Supreme Court Justice Adam Kimber that they were opposed to release on any form of bail because of the seriousness of the allegations and the driver’s shown propensity to flee police and the courts.

The court heard the driver had been recruited by another man who was arrested as part of Operation Ironside and is facing conspiracy to murder charges.

It is alleged the driver drove to Sydney in late March 2020 with a legitimate load of goods.

On the way back he brought 15kg of methamphetamine which was then distributed to a wider syndicate of drug dealers with links to the Comanchero Outlaw Motorcycle Gang.

“A large percentage of the proceeds were bundled up and made available to (the driver) on the return trip on April 3,” the prosecutor said.

“The cycle repeated itself and a quantity of 30kg of methamphetamine was transported back to Adelaide and then $2.74m returned on the final trip.

“He is ultimately intercepted at a service station in Yass on the evening prior to the planned receipt of another 20kg of meth.”

The driver was arrested in Adelaide in late 2021 and charged with multiple drug trafficking offences and laundering $1.322m which was alleged to have been in the truck on his first return journey to Sydney.

Justice Kimber refused to release the man on bail, saying that despite the man’s limited criminal history, the offending was too serious for him to be granted bail.