Alleged drug-running Gold Coast couple lose properties under anti-gang laws

THEIR assets are frozen after being charged under Queensland’s harsh anti-bikie laws ... but they’re not bikies.

A COUPLE accused of running an industrial-scale dope ring have lost their multimillion-dollar property portfolio while fighting charges under harsh anti-gang laws.

Ben and Sarah Hannan bought more than $3.3 million in Gold Coast real estate in the five years before they were charged with trafficking cannabis allegedly grown in an underground plantation.

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But ANZ Bank, which financed purchases including the couple’s $1.1 million waterfront mansion at Helensvale last year, has called in its loans and put the properties up for sale.

Although not bikies, the couple face 25 and 15 extra years’ jail respectively under Queensland’s Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment Act, because they allegedly operated as a criminal organisation.

Their five properties — which include a Willow Vale acreage where police allege millions of dollars’ worth of cannabis was grown in shipping containers buried underground — are frozen under proceeds-of-crime laws.

Sarah Hannan — a mother of two who is accused of running the syndicate’s finances while on maternity leave — was the first woman charged under VLAD. She faces an extra 15 years’ jail on top of her sentence if convicted of trafficking.

Her husband, a former boat builder, faces an extra 25 years if convicted as the alleged “office bearer” or leader of the organisation.

Ms Hannan was profiled by the magazine Woman’s Day after her release on bail.

Any proceeds of the sale of the Hannans’ properties after the loans to ANZ are repaid will be held by the Public Trustee.

The property agent handling the sale declined to comment.