Eddie Kadan pleads guilty to $17.5m Yamba drug trafficking as 47 Operation Ironside defendants face court

An Operation Ironside defendant has admitted his role in a $17.5m drug trafficking syndicate, during a mass hearing of South Australians caught up in the crime sting.

Two people arrested as part of Operation Ironside have entered guilty pleas to serious drug offending during a mass hearing of 57 alleged criminals discovered through the AN0M app police sting.

Before a courtroom packed with detectives, prosecutors and defence lawyers, Eddie Kadan, 40, pleaded guilty to trafficking 10kg of methamphetamine worth $17.5m from New South Wales to Adelaide.

The drugs were discovered in a truck driven by John Stephen Stevenson on May 19, 2021 at the border crossing at Yamba.

Stevenson has since pleaded guilty and been sentenced to four and a half years in prison for his role in the trafficking.

Court documents lodged in the Supreme Court as part of asset seizure applications allege that Kadan handed the 10kg of drugs to Stevenson at the Goulburn Showgrounds.

Kadan was living in Lidcombe in NSW in June when hundreds of police officers arrested people across the nation in an unprecedented sting on organised crime networks.

He was extradited to Adelaide shortly afterwards. He will appear in the District Court next year for sentencing.

Operation Ironside defendant Apostle Broikos, 19, outside the Adelaide Magistrates Court where his matters were adjourned. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

In a separate matter, Timothy Shane Barkla, 46, pleaded guilty to one count of drug trafficking. He too will face sentencing submissions next year in the District Court.

The largely procedural hearing also heard that several new sets of charges had been laid against large groups of offenders.

The largest of them had 10 defendants, including alleged senior members of the Comanchero motorcycle gang, charged with trafficking large quantities of drugs between January and June this year.

A second file, including seven accused, had 72 different charges related to allegations of extensive drug trafficking.

A third file with seven accused had 65 new charges relating to drugs and money laundering.

The large files bought together formerly separate charges laid against numerous individuals.

During the all-day hearing, five defendants were granted new suppression orders preventing publication of their identities, one warrant for the arrest of a man who failed to attend the hearing was issued and three accused formally entered not guilty pleas and will now stand trial. In total, the cases of 57 people were heard.

Apostle Broikos – at 19, the youngest of the Operation Ironside accused – was among the few accused who appeared in court in person.

Magistrate John Wells heard that a charge of trafficking 50kg of methamphetamine at Port Wakefield had been withdrawn against Dalibor Drazetic, 48.

Scott Henchliffe QC, for Mr Drazetic, asked for an additional charge of money laundering to be adjourned for an argument that there was not enough evidence to prove the charge.

Mr Wells adjourned both the money laundering charge and a charge of trafficking cannabis be adjourned to a date next year.

Across the road in the District Court, the first Ironside defendant arrested during the mass operation in June to plead guilty was sentenced for firearm and ammunition offences.

A gun seized as part of Operation Ironside from an accused whose name has been suppressed.

Ammunition seized as part of Operation Ironside from the house and car of an accused whose name has been suppressed.

The man, whose name is suppressed as he faces separate contested charges, was caught with a loaded handgun and 6928 rounds of ammunition.

He told police he had acquired the gun while cleaning out a deceased friend’s house and had been planning for six months to hand it in to police.

Judge Paul Cuthbertson said during sentencing that he was “extremely dubious” about the man’s explanation for acquiring the firearm, but said he would sentence him on that ground.

He pleaded guilty to the charges and was jailed for one year, three months and two weeks with a non-parole period of 10 months.

Originally published as Eddie Kadan pleads guilty to $17.5m Yamba drug trafficking as 47 Operation Ironside defendants face court