AN0M 66 become AN0M 48 as self-confessed drug dealers, gun traffickers plead out
In 2022, 66 men and women from NSW joined a landmark lawsuit seeking to challenge the legality of the infamous AN0M app. Three years on, some have held out, others have bowed out. See where the AN0M 66 are now.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The number of NSW defendants involved in a landmark lawsuit challenging the legality of the AN0M app has fallen sharply, with more than a quarter of the original litigants bowing out of the fight in the past two years.
An analysis by The Daily Telegraph reveals of the 66 alleged criminals who initially signed up to the class-action style challenge between 2022 and 2023, 17 have since withdrawn from the case and pleaded guilty to their crimes.
They include Keiron Ronald Westwood and Michael Robertson, who were sentenced to four years jail and four-and-a-half years jail respectively for conspiring to import heroin and methamphetamine.
Both men have since lodged appeals against their sentences.
An 18th man, Sayet Erhan Akca, is also no longer a part of the challenge after fleeing overseas while on bail on 600kg drug importation charges.
Police have since linked him to the so-called hoax “terror caravan” plot in Sydney’s north-west.
The AN0M app, dubbed the ultimate Trojan horse experiment, was at the centre of a three-year joint sting involving the Australian Federal Police and the FBI, in which police strategically placed mobile phones loaded with the app into the hands of alleged criminal networks.
They then used a back door built into the system to covertly monitor millions of messages being sent in real time, allegedly uncovering large scale criminal activity including drug dealing, money laundering, murder conspiracies and firearm trafficking.
The top secret operation was blown wide open on June 7, 2021, when police disabled the app and arrested hundreds of alleged users around the world.
However, the following year, dozens of Australians facing AN0M-related charges banded together state-by-state intending to challenge the legality of the evidence collected on the phones.
The South Australian lawsuit, widely considered the test case across the country, is currently before the full bench of the High Court of Australia, with a hearing date set for May.
Lawyers for the men and women who signed up in NSW participated in a preliminary hearing in the Local Court in mid-2023, which probed the exact nature of the technology behind the app and how the communications were monitored by police.
However, the bulk of the cases have largely stalled since then, as defendants, judicial officers and the legal fraternity at-large await the outcome of the High Court appeal.
Among those in limbo is accused drug lord Mostafa Baluch, who infamously cut off his ankle monitor and tried to flee interstate while on bail for allegedly attempting to import an estimated 900kg of cocaine into Australia, worth an estimated $270m.
Fellow accused drug dealer Julian Lee, the husband of Instagram-famous Sydney pole dancer Hoang Anh Le, better known as Dirdy Birdy, is also on the list, as is Astro Waetford, the uncle of pop singer Jai Waetford and alleged Comanchero associate Ashley Charles Rake.
Neither Ms Lee or Astro Waetford are accused of any wrongdoing.
Of the 48 men and women now left in the legal challenge, all but eight have been released into the community on bail, largely on account of the extended delay between their arrest and expected trial dates.
The most recent, Gjelosh Nikollaj, was released in March after the Court of Criminal Appeal found the alleged drug importer would have been in custody on remand for more than four-and-a-half years by the time his February 2026 trial began.
A super call over of the remaining cases will occur before Judge Gina O’Rouke on August 15.
‘I never read code of ethics’: Nine reporter in hot seat
The secretly recorded phone call of reporter Nick McKenzie that has led to Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith seeking to reopen his defamation appeal will be played before the full bench of the Federal Court on Friday.
Read more
Council rate hikes put Aussie election tax cuts at risk
Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton’s promises to provide cost of living relief threaten to be wiped out as councils plan to raise rates by up to 87 per cent due to a lack of government funding.
Read more