Explosive bikie-linked Qld drug ring chatter exposed in secret recordings
Members of an alleged bikie-linked Queensland drug ring believed their syndicate was “working with the Colombians” in secretly recorded conversations.
Police & Courts
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Members of an alleged bikie-linked Queensland drug ring believed their syndicate was “working with the Colombians” in secretly recorded conversations by federal investigators. Covert surveillance allegedly caught the pair discussing their success in retrieving a slice of a massive 490kg cocaine haul smuggled into the state from overseas in a shipping container.
The Sunday Mail can exclusively reveal details of the alleged conversations between the two alleged members of the group, allegedly run by “senior offshore based” members of the Lone Wolf and Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gangs.
The pair, who were allegedly tasked with creeping into storage yards at the Port of Brisbane to retrieve cocaine hidden in empty international shipping containers, allegedly discussed burying blocks of the drug in Tingalpa, in Brisbane’s southern suburbs, and whether drugs came from “proper cartels” or “just c***s that can find mad product... in South America”.
The extraordinary lengths the group went to in a bid to hide their activities from authorities were described in court documents tendered during a successful Supreme Court bail application by Jordan Roman Brennan, 27, from Varsity Lakes on the Gold Coast.
Justice Paul Freeburn granted Brennan bail on 26 charges - including possessing unlawfully imported cocaine, and attempting to possess unlawfully imported cocaine - on September 7.
This was on strict conditions including a ban from rubbing shoulders with Lone Wolf bikies and that his Sydney-based dad, Qantas electrician Lindsay Dallas Brennan, put up a $100,000 surety.
Brennan and his co-accused Brendan John Sipple succeeded in having one charge of possessing unlawfully imported cocaine thrown out by a Magistrate during their committal this month, but they were committed to stand trial on a charge of attempting to possess unlawfully imported cocaine.
Brennan had spent more than two years in pre-sentence custody, and has an 18-month-old son Roman - with model Kate Szepanowski, 27 - who he had been unable to meet while he was in prison, the court heard.
Brennan, an alleged “criminal associates of the Lone Wolf OMCG”, is alleged to have told Sipple, 29, on June 12, 2020 in a secretly recorded chat that it was vital they fetched the cocaine “bricks” hidden in shipping containers under the cover of darkness.
“We’re not going to be able to f***in rock up at f***in eight o’clock the next morning when its daylight and f***ing start removing panels from f***ing things and taking out little f***ing brick shaped objects from f***ing bits of cabinets in the middle of the day you know what I mean?... it’s kinda gonna look strange” Brennan is alleged to have said.
The conversation was recorded by the Australian Federal Police who hid a listening device in their falsely registered white Hyundai iLoad van, court documents state.
Days earlier on June 6, Brennan is alleged to have recounted an earlier occasion when he unloaded “400 kegs” into a wheelie bin and put them into the back of the van during a phone call to another man.
Prosecutors alleged Brennan and Sipple retrieved 400kg of 490kg hidden in the floor of a shipping container at the Port of Brisbane between May 8 and May 12, 2020, but left 90kg behind as they had trouble cutting through the floor of the metal container and the sheer weight of the drugs.
“They told us last time to go there with a hand grinder, we got in there and it was strong as f***”, Brennan allegedly told Sipple on June 12.
“300 weighs the car down heaps bro, it changes the whole dynamic of things” Brennan is alleged to have told Sipple on June 10.
These conversations relate to the charge which has been dropped.
Between June 1 and June 14, 2020 police allege they tried to retrieve 48.5kg of cocaine from a second container which arrived in Brisbane on June 6, but failed because Belgian police had already seized it.
The container, which had been loaded onto a ship in Panama, had travelled through Ecuador before being searched in Belgium, then continued on to Brisbane via the United Arab Emirates and Singapore.
Brennan, a former boxer who competed for both Queensland and Australia, allegedly told Sipple that it was supposed to be a basic concealment in the refrigerated container with “20 on each side”.
“I think these c**** are working with the Colombians” Sipple allegedly told Brennan on June 11.
“You reckon?” Brennan replied.
“How do them c**** land bricks (one brick is a kilogram of cocaine)? I didn’t say 100 per cent, I said I’ve got a hunch,” Sipple allegedly replied.
Sipple asked Brennan what they would do with the cocaine on June 10, and Brennan allegedly replies that they will bury it in a reserve he knows in Tingalpa, on Brisbane’s southside.
Police allege that Brennan’s DNA was found on a single black rubber glove found on the ground in front of the container which had held the 48.5kg of cocaine in Beglium.
Brennan was also granted bail on six charges related to the kidnap and torture of Eduardus Groenewegen from Raceview, near Ipswich, on October 25, 2019 in company with five other men, all alleged to be members or associates of the Lone Wolf bikie gang.
Co-accused Brodie Jeet Singh, 45, is alleged to be the National President of the Lone Wolf OMCG, and four others are alleged to be patched members of the Tweed Coast chapter, prosecutor Andreas Galloway states in written submissions filed in court.
Mr Galloway submits that the six alleged kidnappers wore vests with the word “police” written on them, and were screaming “police, search warrant” and “threatened to cut off the fingers” of Groenewegen and to rape and kill his girlfriend, who was present during the alleged attack but who refused to give evidence at the committal hearing.
“If you’re not gonna talk, we’re gonna have to rape your sexy girlfriend” members of the group are alleged to have said.
“We are gonna put a bullet in your brain, we are gonna put a bullet in your girlfriends brain” and “if you’re not going to start talking we are going to set the van on fire with you in it”.
Groenewegen allegedly suffered life threatening injuries including a bleed on the brain, multiple facial fractures, caustic burns to the mouth, oesophagus and lips and caustic fluid burns to his genitalia.
Brennan’s lawyer argued the case against him for the torture of Groenewegen “is circumstantial and extremely weak”.
He was also granted bail on charges of possession of a Sig Sauer handgun and a Glock 26 handgun, a black leather body armour vest and a black tactical helmet - alleged to be similar to ones used in the kidnapping - at his Robina home on July 14, 2020, as well as assaulting two women at the Wildlands music festival at the RNA showgrounds in Bowen Hills on December 28, 2019.
He is alleged to have grabbed one of the women’s throat with one hand and punched her in the face with his other hand, court documents state.
One of the alleged victim’s passport and drivers licence were found in Brennan’s garage by police during a search, court documents state.
The charges are supported by a video of the offending, Mr Galloway submits.
Brennan is alleged to have assaulted the women in company with his partner Ms Szepanowski, who has also been charged with assault.
She is also contesting the assault charges.
As part of his bail conditions Brennan is banned from contacting or communication with members of the Lone Wolf bikie gang including: Garry James Brush, James Robert Armstrong, Jordan Johnson Curry (who is alleged to be in custody in Greece), Grant Anthony Dalziell, Michael Anthony Kelly, James Murphy, Todd Edward Skinner, Joseph William Dick and Matt Edward Lewis.
The kidnapping charges are due to go to trial in the District Court on September 25 next year.
A sixth man, Vincent Dean Cusumano was charged over the kidnapping on Friday after his release from a NSW prison.
Brennan has been offered jobs as a labourer by Diogo Giglio, founder of Gold Coast company Giglio Construction in Miami as well as by Jack O’Brien, managing director from Gold Coast earthmoving company OBX Excavation Pty Ltd, court documents state.
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