Police allegedly infiltrate bikie gang, posing as crypto brokers

A clean-cut family man caught with $3 million in his car has been accused of living a secret double life as a cash mule for an exiled national bikie club president.

A clean-cut family man caught with $3 million in his car has been accused of living a secret double life as a cash mule for an exiled national bikie club president, who was deceived by undercover police in a global money laundering and drug sting.

David Kucan and wife Kelly Kucan.

Father of three David John Kucan, 46, was a passenger in a silver Nissan Navara ute driven by his wife Kelly Anne Kucan, 43, on the Pacific Motorway on the Gold Coast in April last year when the couple were pulled over by uniformed police.

While submitting to the supposed “routine” random roadside breath test they were unaware that it was the culmination of more than a year’s work by undercover police who had allegedly infiltrated the highest levels of the Lone Wolf bikie gang.

Heavily-armed Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) were alongside the highway patrol, at Elanora, as police allege “firearms were often carried by either drivers or occupants of escorting vehicles providing security”.

The only weapon police found in the ute was a telescopic baton in the driver’s side door.

But they also found $3m cash sat in two large sports bags on the back seat, and a backpack in the rear footwell.

$3m cash was found in two sports bags on the back seat of a car driven by Kelly Anne Kucan, in which David John Kucan was also travelling.

Police allege Mr Kucan, a pool-fence installer who then lived at Banora Point in northern NSW, was actually a secret cash mule and they allege that the three bags of cash he was transporting belonged to the exiled Lone Wolf national president, who lived in Tweed Heads until he moved to Greece.

Details of the case were revealed in the District Court in Brisbane as part of an application by the Australian Federal Police to restrain the $3m in cash and have it held by the Public Trustee under proceeds of crime legislation.

Both Mr and Ms Kucan said they were aware of the forfeiture claim but declined to comment when approached by The Sunday Mail at their home near Grafton this week.

Police allege Mr Kucan was working for Jordan Johnson Whetu Curry, 40, who was handing over the $3m purchase price for 62kg of cocaine.

They allege Kucan and Curry’syndicate communicated via an encrypted Ciphr app - used to avoid detection by authorities - to arrange delivery of the $3m, on a Samsung phone police found in Kucan’s Navara.

Jordan Curry. Picture: Anna Rogers

Police allege Curry thought the 62kg of cocaine had been smuggled into Sydney from Colombia and was his slice of a larger 300kg shipment.

Police allege Curry agreed, in a cyber-chat via a ciphr phone with an undercover cop, to pay the $3m for the drugs.

What police allege Curry and Mr Kucan did not know at the time was that the Colombian cartel did not exist and it was an elaborate ruse created by police as part of a sting.

In fact the Australian “representative” of the Colombian cartel they allegedly met with to arrange the deal in Newcastle, was an undercover cop, court documents reveal.

Police arranged 13 contracts with an undercover cop for collection of $4.4m to be converted to cryptocurrency and transferred to digital wallets nominated by the money launder syndicate.

Police allege they gained the trust of Curry back in March 2020 by posing as a cryptocurrency broker to offer an invaluable service in laundering his alleged dirty drug money.

Curry is alleged to have been fooled by the undercover cop posing as a “trusted” crypto broker after he met with an unnamed “authorised civilian participant” in Madrid, Spain.

Money seized by police during the operation.

In Spain, Curry is alleged to have asked this person to connect him with a “trusted Australian cryptocurrency broker” who could convert large amounts of cash to cryptocurrency without reporting it to regulators.

Curry’s alleged “transnational criminal activities” in Australia and beyond were the target of a joint Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission-US law enforcement investigation called Project Manthey, court documents state.

Curry has not been charged in Australia.

He was last known to be in a Greek prison after he was arrested in Mykonos on July 28 last year.

He was last reported to be awaiting extradition to the US for drug exporting and money laundering.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed to The Sunday Mail it was aware of the arrest of an Australian in Greece, and consular assistance was offered.

But citing privacy, they would not confirm his current location or if he was in custody.

Back on the Gold Coast, the $3m cash in Mr Kucan’s Nissan Navara,neatly packed in sixty clear heat-sealed, cryovaced bags, never made it to its alleged destination, as Queensland police were told to pounce by the secretive national criminal intelligence agency the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.

Cash seized during the operation.

In his police interview, Detective Snr Constable Joel Spencer asked David Kucan “What can you tell us about” the $3m cash.

“Umm. No comment,” Mr Kucan replied.

Kelly Kucan also said "no comment” when asked what she could tell police about the cash.

Queensland Police have not charged her with any offences.

Police had been watching Mr Kucan for more than a year, and allege he worked for Curry because he was short of money.

“I don’t have much at the moment” Mr Kucan is alleged to have texted a friend in May 2020, and a month later he texted “we need to work out a way to earn more coin”.

Within three weeks of this text, police allege Mr Kucan met with an undercover cop in Yatala and handed over $300,000 in cash in a backpack, asking the officer to convert it to crypto.

Two months later in September, Mr Kucan is alleged to have gone to a second meeting, also in Yatala, and handed over the same amount of cash in a blue FILA branded backpack.

The $5 “token” along with a backpack seized during the police operation.

The serial number on top of this $5 note was used as ‘token’ to prove the cash was handed over.

In each of these covert meetings a special $5 note with a particular serial number was used as a “token” to prove the cash was handed over to the undercover cop, the police statement of facts alleges.

For each pick-up of dirty cash by the undercover police, an image of the serial number of a $5 note was communicated by the undercover cop pretending to be the crypto broker via Ciphr to Curry, the police facts allege.

During the physical exchange of cash, the undercover cop allegedly gave the actual physical $5 note with matching serial number to Mr Kucan, and other mules who collected cash, the statement of facts alleges.

Police don't state in court documents how they allege Mr Kucan met Mr Curry but they allege Curry is listed as a contact in Kucan’s Facebook messenger on the mobile phone they seized from him.

When pulled over in April 2021, he said he was on his way to Tallebudgera to quote a customers for a new pool fence.

Ms Kucan told police that on day she was pulled over she had taken the dog to the pet store for a wash, grabbed lunch from KFC drive-through and picked up a bike and the family’s “tinnie” boat from a mechanic, all ready for a school holiday trip to Grafton.

Kelly Kucan, wife of David Kucan, at the front entrance of a home near Grafton.

Police allege in court documents that Mr and Mrs Kucan “failed to provide a lawful reason for being in possession of “ the $3m and “no party has requested the return of, or claimed to have a legitimate interest in” the cash since it was seized from the car.

Police allege the couple “do not have the financial means to have acquired the cash legitimately”, and police have filed their tax returns and analysis of their assets in court.

Mr Kucan previously owned the Millard Tyre Centre in Tweed Heads.

Mr Kucan has been charged with three counts of money laundering in relation to the seized $3m at Elanora in 2021, and the two cash drops in Yatala in July and September 2020, and one count of possessing a restricted item in relation to the telescopic baton.

If convicted of laundering the $3m, Mr Kucan faces up to 12 years in prison.

Mr Kucan is listed as a “grounds keeper” on the bench charge sheet.

Mr Kucan’s proceeds of crime civil case is due in the District Court on September 28. His criminal charges are back in Southport Magistrates Court on October 31.