Wannabe bikies, drug runners, businessman and a teen dealer: Inside the successes of Operation Ironside
Drug kingpins, teen dealers, an arsonist and wannabe bikies – these are the people already doing jail time in Adelaide, taken down by global sting Operation Ironside. See the full list.
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A year and a half after the encrypted AN0M app was shutdown and hundreds of people were arrested across Australia in a global sting, Operation Ironside has reached a new milestone.
People arrested as part of resolution day on June 7, 2021 or linked to the use of the AN0M phones for illegal activity have been jailed for a total now surpassing 70 years.
The people include high level traffickers, self declared “patsies” and people out to make a quick buck.
While dozens of other accused have pleaded not guilty and will challenge both the evidence against them and the legality of the entire operation, others have already pleaded guilty.
Next year high level drug traffickers like Tereapii Pokoina who imported 18kg of cocaine, will be sentenced as well as lower level players such as Rohan Wakefield who has pleaded guilty to possessing military grade firearms.
Head of SA police’s head of serious and organised crime branch Superintendent Billy Thompson said police had 104 arrests relating to Operation Ironside.
“Serious and Organised Crime Branch will continue to be relentless in its pursuit of those who choose to involve themselves in serious and organised crime and bring harm to our communities,” he said.
“(We are) firmly focused on detecting, disrupting and dismantling organised crime syndicates and will ensure those involved will be held to account.”
The fate of many other prosecutions currently hinges on a test case being run in the Supreme Court.
Lawyers for two Ironside accused are challenging the validity of the warrants on which the operation was based, as well as the interactions between Australian law enforcement and the FBI.
A decision on those arguments is expected to be made in the first half of 2023 with a near inevitable appeal to be launched to the full sitting of the Supreme Court and then the High Court.
George Awkar aka Pizza
16 years and 10 months imprisonment. Non-parole 12 years, one month.
A former successful businessman and prominent member of the Lebanese community, Awkar fell into a deep drug debt and became a prominent drug trafficker. While he was caught with less than a kilo of drugs in his home, Awkar saw the writing on the wall and pleaded early, but hundreds of messages revealing he had been dealing in kilograms of methamphetamine and a history of suspended sentences for drug trafficking led to the heaviest sentence so far handed down as part of the operation.
John Hulse, Jason Howett-Elliott and Robert Marshall
Four years and five months imprisonment each. Non-parole period of two years and three months.
Three men caught in Northfield at a drug use being used to package and seal hundreds of kilograms of cannabis.
The men’s involvement was not at the top of the hierarchy, despite earning significant amounts of money to help package the drugs.
All three men had new AN0M devices delivered while on bail in order to communicate with each other, leading police to arrest them and charge them with breaching bail.
All three pleaded guilty early and were given a significant sentencing discount.
John Stephen Stevenson
Four years, six months and two weeks in prison. Non-parole period of two years.
The first major plea as part of Operation Ironside. Stevenson was behind the wheel of a semi-trailer with 10kg of meth on board worth an estimated $17.5m when it was stopped at the border crossing at Yamba.
The drugs were in containers hidden in the back of the truck.
He pleaded guilty early will be eligible for parole in May this year.
Other members of the same syndicate who are allegedly linked to the crime through AN0M messages have pleaded not guilty to trafficking a large commercial quantity of methamphetamine.
Stefan Gawlik aka Bullets in Bodies, Randy, Phillipe
Six years and 10 months. Non-parole period of three years and eight months.
Linked to the Comanchero Motorcycle Gang, Gawlik was charged with trafficking 100L of the drug fantasy.
Police were monitoring as the drug was handed over at a house before being transported to a second site where it was to be onsold.
Officers swooped and arrested several members of the syndicate.
Messages from the AN0M app show Gawlik was intrinsically involved in selling the chemical between the group which imported the drug and a second drug syndicate.
Eddie Kadan
Five years, three months in prison. Non-parole period of two years and four months
A truck driver in search for a “quick buck” who handed over the 10kg of methamphetamine to Stevenson for transport to South Australia.
The pair were monitored when they met at the Goulburn fair ground and transferred the drugs.
He was arrested in Sydney and extradited to South Australia to face a charge of trafficking in a large commercial quantity of a controlled drug.
During sentencing submissions the District Court heard Kadan was trying to make quick money to pay off a crippling gambling and drug addiction.
He will be eligible for parole this year.
Young Drug Dealer aka OnlySilly
Three years and nine months. Non-parole period of one year and 11 months. Suspended.
A young drug dealer caught with MDMA, cocaine and cash near a school zone.
An encrypted AN0M device was found in his home revealing messages between himself and a more senior drug dealer in a larger syndicate which was making and distributing kilos of MDMA.
Operating under the handle OnlySilly – the young dealer was able to move thousands of pills within a few hours.
His sentence was suspended because of his age, contrition and progress towards rehabilitation.
Timothy Shane Barkla
Four years and two months imprisonment. 26 months non-parole. Suspended.
Agreed to hide $57,000 worth of cocaine behind microwave to help out a family member.
Police also located a hydraulic press alongside the two ounces of cocaine.
Had no criminal record when he begun using the AN0M app and ended facing the possibility of prison.
His sentence was suspended because of his clean criminal record and his “selfless” personality.
Damien John Fraser
Eight years and three months imprisonment. Non-parole period of six years and seven months.
Used criminal contacts to source the firebombing of a heritage building in a revenge attack for a third man.
The targeted business were devastated by the attack and feared that further attacks would be launched against their homes.
Fraser pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting in the arson and prosecutors argued he had been “very willing to oblige” in enabling the attack.
Stuart Duncan Farquhar
Four years and six months imprisonment. Non-parole period of three years and seven months.
Acting as a courier for a larger syndicate, Farquhar ferried kilograms of methamphetamine and heroin between various individuals in Adelaide.
When his Mount Barker home was raided, police located kilograms of methamphetamine, multiple electronic devices and 674g of heroin – more than was seized in all of SA in the year 2019-2020.
Farquhar pleaded guilty early to the charges and threw himself on the mercy of the court.
He thanked District Court Judge Paul Cuthbertson for the sentence as he was being led from the court.
The Director of Public Prosecutions has launched an appeal against the sentence as inappropriately low.
Suppressed Accused
One year, three months and two weeks imprisonment. Non-parole period of 10 weeks.
An alleged member of a larger criminal syndicate who pleaded guilty to the possession of 6928 rounds of ammunition and a loaded handgun.
He maintains his innocence on charges of manufacturing a large commercial quantity of MDMA.
Judge Paul Cuthbertson in sentencing the man said he was “extremely dubious” about the man’s excuse for the having the gun.
The court heard that the man claimed to have found the gun in the home of a deceased friend and that he had been intending to hand it in for six months.
Tyler Hernandez Brook
Two years imprisonment. Non-parole period of one year and two months. Suspended.
Another early plea to serious charges. Brook was literally found by police tending a grow house for a larger syndicate.
It was accepted at the outset that Brook did not have an AN0M phone and was not a larger player in the enterprise.
He had been looking for a place to live and was allowed to live in the growhouse in exchange for the occasional tending of crops.
Adam Burgess
Three months imprisonment. Suspended.
Charged and sentenced with low level cannabis offending arising from police locating cannabis at his northern suburbs home.
The exact link between Burgess and other Ironside accused is unknown.
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