Secret AN0M texts released by courts reveal locations of drug deals across Adelaide

From Bunnings carparks to Maccas and suburban Adelaide homes, secret messages show how and where drugs are dealt around Adelaide. See the map.

• Secret underworld texts exposed

On June 3, 2021, a van idled on the road outside a vacant block in Holden Hill.

Its driver, a nervous man who had not participated in a daylight drug deal before, had followed instructions and parked with his car facing up the hill and with his window open.

A figure walked down the hill and passed 3kg of methamphetamines through the window and kept walking.

The driver took the package of drugs – worth more than a million dollars if sold in points – to a safe spot and stashed it until a second driver arrived and whisked the drugs away.

For a few hours of nerve-racking work the driver was given $3000 – $1000 for each of the kilograms of methamphetamine he had babysat.

The transaction was performed by a large co-ordinated organised crime group and facilitated by AN0M encrypted phones.

Tens of thousands of messages released by Australian courts show the inner workings of the group and their methods for moving millions of dollars worth of drugs around Adelaide.

From Bunnings carparks and fast food restaurants to suburban homes and clandestine street handovers, runners for the group were employed full time to move vast quantities of drugs and ferry back cash to the senior members.

While most handovers were easy, others got overly complicated while the couriers sweated about the potential jail sentence for carrying large quantities of drugs.

Later on June 3, 2021, two drug couriers were scheduled to meet to hand over the 3kg of methamphetamines.

The two drivers, who did not have each other’s contact details but were liaising with a third man, were to meet at Sefton Plaza.

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Pictures allegedly sent and received over the AN0M app. Picture: SA Court of Appeal

Pictures allegedly sent and received over the AN0M app. Picture: SA Court of Appeal

However, the instructions were vague. One man went to the upstairs carpark while the other parked out the front of Target.

For agonising minutes, a flurry of messages between all the parties led to the man accidentally switching positions before finally meeting in the crowded carpark.

In another instance, an alleged courier was given very specific instructions to drop a package next to a book placed on the front step of a house.

When a person appeared at the door the courier tried to hand the package over but was told in no uncertain terms that the only way the drugs would reach their destination was if they were put down on the book.

Pictures allegedly sent and received over the AN0M app. Picture: SA Court of Appeal

Pictures allegedly sent and received over the AN0M app. Picture: SA Court of Appeal

An additional issue of running a large drug syndicate was a reluctance to keep any records written down.

As a result, drug debts were kept written in codes and shorthand on scraps of paper or in phone lists.

When the lists kept by different members did not match up, hundreds of thousands of dollars could be on the line.

A group of men alleged to have been behind the syndicate have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to go to trial next year.

Originally published as Secret AN0M texts released by courts reveal locations of drug deals across Adelaide