Drug mule describes car’s secret chambers to smuggle drugs, cash

A drug mule has described the secret chambers installed in a ute to allow him to smuggle meth-oil and large sums of cash for an alleged Gold Coast drug kingpin.

Alleged drug kingpin Ivan Tesic at the Supreme Court in Brisbane this week. Picture: John Gass/AAP

A “supergrass” drug mule has described the secret chambers specially installed in a ute to allow him to smuggle meth-oil and large sums of cash for an alleged Gold Coast drug kingpin without attracting police attention.

The mule, who can’t be named for legal reasons, is giving evidence in the Supreme Court today on the third day of the trial of Gold Coast man Ivan Tesic, 45, on a charge of carrying on a business of trafficking in drugs between March 31, 2011 and March 21, 2014, and a charge of possession of ice on March 20, 2014 at his home in Isle of Capri on the Gold Coast.

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Ivan Tesic outside court this week. Picture: John Gass/AAP

Crown Prosecutor Mark Whitbread showed the mule photographs taken by police of the secret cubbyholes in a silver Holden Commodore ute used by the mule to deliver drugs and cash.

The mule told the jury that a secret electric switch inside a chamber on the front passenger side of the ute was used to remotely open the lock of another hidey-hole in the rear of the car, where meth-oil or cash were stored during interstate trips.

He told the jury that Tesic gave him orders to make oil deliveries via his encrypted BlackBerry phone, which was used because they could be “remotely wiped” and were “nearly impossible” for authorities to tap or bug.

He said he also recalled giving an estimated $250,000 cash to Tesic that he had transported in the ute from the Gold Coast to Sydney, saying when he arrived at Tesic’s Hoxton Park home Tesic “took it out of the bag and stacked it on the bench” of his office.

The mule said the cash was made up of bundles of $50 and $20 notes tied up with rubber bands.

The mule told the court that Tesic gave him six green lemonade bottles filled with meth oil in a Jim Beam Esky bag on March 19, 2014 and he put it in the rear compartment of the silver commodore ute.

The mule told the jury that Tesic told him to drive back to the Gold Coast.

He told the jury that Tesic gave him “five grand cash” for delivering the oil.

On another occasion the mule said that Tesic’s brother Novak “Knock” Tesic paid for the mule to take a holiday in Thailand.

In earlier evidence the court heard that Tesic was the subject of a massive police operation which included bugging phones, the Isle of Capri home where he spent part of the year, in his garage and hidden cameras set up across the road.

The trial is continuing before Justice Glenn Martin.