Rockhampton house raid ends Operation Tango Negative with eight arrested and 1.3kg of meth seized

When Rockhampton detectives raided the house of an alleged drug kingpin, they allegedly found meth stashed inside the staircase and even stashed underneath a 4WD parked outside. Watch the full video here.

Seven months of work by Rockhampton CIB detectives has led to the arrest of eight people and the seizure of more than 1.3kg of meth, $25,000 in cash, two vehicles allegedly obtained with the proceeds of drug trafficking, two unregistered firearms, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

Operation Tango Negative, an investigation into the supply of drugs in Rockhampton and Yeppoon, was conducted by a dedicated group of four police officers and an intelligence officer, as well as various specialist police units.

Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Kevin Mawdsley said “countless” hours of work contributed to the operation’s conclusion last Friday upon the arrest of a Rockhampton man.

That man was 38-year-old Benjamin Anton Sorensen, one of two described by Mr Mawdsley as alleged “principal offenders” in a “network of criminal activity”; the other is former prison officer Stephen Garry Crisp, who was arrested in August and remains in custody.

Benjamin Anton Sorensen was arrested in a raid of a Wandal home.

Sorensen was arrested in a police raid of a home in Wandal, during which cash and drugs were allegedly seized, Mr Mawdsley said.

Bodycam footage of the raid shows officers allegedly finding meth stashed under the stairs in the home and in a container clipped underneath the front of a 4WD outside the home.

Sorensen faced Rockhampton Magistrates Court on Monday charged with 43 offences, including 29 counts of supplying dangerous drugs.

His charges in full were as follows:

• 1x attempting to pervert justice
• 1x authority required to possess explosives
• 1x contravening order about information necessary to access information stored electronically
• 1x possess utensils or pipes etc that had been used
• 2x possessing anything used in the commission of crime defined in part 2
• 2x possessing dangerous drugs schedule 1 drug quantity of or exceeding schedule 3 but less than schedule 4
• 1x possession of property suspected of being acquired with proceeds of an offence under drugs misuse act
• 3x receiving or possessing property obtained from trafficking or supplying
• 29x supplying dangerous drugs
• 1x trafficking in dangerous drugs
• 1x unlawful supply of weapons

Sorensen was remanded in custody until November 18.

Sorensen will appear in court by video on November 18.

Mr Mawdsley said police would lay more charges against Crisp “very shortly”.

He said the main sources of information that helped investigations such as Operation Tango Negative were community tip-offs.

“In terms of that (alleged) network, yes, we’re confident that they’ve been dismantled,” he said.

“However, we’re very sure that there will be others who will choose to engage in this type of activity.

“For that reason, we would ask for the community to provide information to police whenever they become aware of it.

“They can contact Crime Stoppers, and of course they can remain anonymous.”