Coast cops start probe leading to massive ice bust

GROUND work by Sunshine Coast detectives was the starting point of a major drug bust that dented the supply of ice across south-east Queensland.

GROUND work by Sunshine Coast detectives was the starting point of a major drug bust that dented the supply of ice across south-east Queensland.

Organised Crime Investigation Unit officer Detective Inspector Lance Vercoe has offered rare insight into the inner workings of the investigation which nabbed an alleged drug kingpin and a number of alleged high-level dealers.

Det Insp Vercoe said the seizure of 4.2kg of ice from a Mount Gravatt home on Tuesday could be linked back to information received by Sunshine Coast detectives about 10 months ago.

That information was a starting point of Operation Mike Tyrus, which resulted in about 150 arrests over two days in early July.

Many of those charged had been linked by police to three men whose arrest a week earlier went largely unreported.

Det Insp Vercoe said that was because police released very limited information.

"We didn't want people to be aware their source of drugs had been destroyed," Det Insp Vercoe said.

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He said 34-year-old Adam Charles Johns, of Redbank Ck near Esk, had been identified by Sunshine Coast detectives as an alleged drug delivery driver during their nine-month investigation.

Those detectives then enlisted the help of Det Insp Vercoe's Brisbane-based unit to identify another two men allegedly working with Johns.

Johns, 40-year-old Brisbane man Brad Matthew Watt and 36-year-old Gatton man Luke Perrett were arrested on June 29 and charged with drug trafficking as well as being a part of a criminal syndicate.

Det Insp Vercoe said more than half a kilogram of ice, about $20,000 in cash and about $70,000 worth of jewellery as well as cars and a motorbike were seized as a result of raids in Brisbane that day.

Those arrests were pre-cursors to Tuesday's large ice seizure and arrest of 38-year-old Forrestdale man Van Danh Tran.

It will be alleged Tran was above Watt and Perrett who were allegedly organising for Johns to deliver drugs to dealers on the Sunshine Coast.

Sunshine Coast District Crime Group officer-in-charge David Drinnen said investigations into the initial information were expanded on until they reached the stage where major arrests could be made.

'We've got a team that's dedicated to (investigating) drug and serious crime on the Sunshine Coast," Det Insp Drinnen said.

"They are extremely high level, experienced, skilful officers who understand how crooks work.

"It's really satisfying to see a network you have dismantled."