Watch live: Major Crime detectives arrest alleged leader of major drug syndicate in latest Ironside arrest
A man sought by the FBI and Australian Federal Police has been arrested on the Yorke Peninsula by Operation Ironside detectives. He faces charges over drug trafficking and money laundering.
Police & Courts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
An international fugitive and “significant player” allegedly at the helm of a multi-million dollar interstate crime syndicate has been arrested on Yorke Peninsula in the latest Operation Ironside sting, police say.
The 47-year-old, whose identity is suppressed, is wanted internationally by the FBI and Australian Federal Police as a distributor of the encrypted AN0M application – a step below the most senior administrators of the app.
In FBI documents, which were unsealed following the operation’s resolution day and the arrests of hundreds of people around the world, the man was believed to be in Indonesia.
Intercepted messages linked to the man allegedly show he was involved in trafficking kilograms of cocaine sourced from Bogota, Colombia.
Police swooped on a home on the Yorke Peninsula on Sunday, arresting the man. He appeared in court on Monday charged with multiple drug trafficking and money laundering offences.
Those charges link the man to a syndicate which allegedly trafficked millions of dollars worth of methamphetamine across Australia.
The members of that syndicate are already before the courts facing charges of allegedly laundering more than $5.5m in less than a year.
It is understood the 47-year-old will be jointly charged with members of that group and will also face significant charges of his own.
Police will allege he was involved in trafficking upwards of $80m in methamphetamine, ecstasy, cocaine, cannabis and money laundering offences valued “in the millions of dollars”.
Police will also allege the man was involved in the trafficking thousands of ecstasy tablets, kilos of ecstasy powder and in excess of “millions of dollars of cannabis”.
Serious and Organised Crime Branch Detective Chief Inspector Darren Fielke described the man as a “significant player” in Australia’s criminal underbelly who fled the country in April 2021, following the seizure of 50kg of methamphetamine found inside a truck at Port Wakefield.
REPLAY THE PRESS CONFERENCE
Ironside detectives had been working “tirelessly” to track and arrest the alleged drug trafficker, whose syndicate was a heavy user of the AN0M encrypted communications platform – sending 1500 messages to one of his subordinates in the syndicate.
Inspector Fielke said more arrests around the syndicate “were not out of the question” but said police had captured most of the syndicate.
He said the arrest was a “significant blow to organised crime” and should send a warning to others.
“We know that there are people who open the door to facilitate organised crime … all of these people are on our radar,” he said.
“We’ll look at every level of organised crime and seek to take it out.”
The arrest comes as Adelaide lawyers mount legal challenges to the encrypted AN0M platform, which intercepted millions of messages before the app was shut down in June last year.
If successful, the legal move threatens to derail more than 100 cases before South Australian courts, as well as others interstate.
The 47-year-old man was remanded in custody to next face court in October.
More Coverage
Woman dies in hospital after being hit by garbage truck
A 29-year-old woman hit by a garbage truck in SA’s north on Tuesday night has died in hospital from her injuries.
Read more
‘Police always here’: Neighbour speaks out after person shot
A person has been shot after a group of people entered a house in Adelaide’s north before 5pm on Thursday, with a neighbour saying that police are ‘always’ present at the house.
Read more