Baggage handler used nicknames to bring drugs into Sydney Airport: Court

A baggage handler at Sydney Airport will reappear in court later this month on drugs charges as a result of police’s AN0M investigation.

A baggage handler took two bags allegedly filled with methamphetamine off a flight and handed them to a colleague, who put them on the carousel so they could be walked out of the terminal like any other luggage.

The simple methods of the drug ring of which Frank Meredith was allegedly a key cog were intended to see the goods get into and out of Sydney Airport without a trace.

But what the syndicate did not know was the AN0M messenger app they were using allowed police to track their every move, a court has heard.

Meredith, 31, an employee of the Emirates-owned Dubai National Air Travel Agency (DNATA) was, among other things, responsible for unloading luggage from the aircraft as it arrived.

Central Local Court heard on Thursday that Australian Federal Police allege that when an Air Canada plane touched down in Sydney in March 2019, Meredith knowingly took off 38 kilograms of methamphetamine.

Former Sydney Airport baggage handler Frank Meredith, 31, is currently facing charges of importing a border controlled drug in March 2019. Picture: Supplied

The details of the alleged drug ring came as Meredith applied for bail, almost two months after he was one of hundreds of people arrested across Australia as part of Operation Ironside.

The court heard when the Air Canada flight arrived into Kingsford Smith Airport on March 6, 2019, it taxied into the bay where Meredith and a co-conspirator were allegedly waiting.

Magistrate Clare Farnan told the court it is alleged the New Zealand national waited patiently as the “baggage loader” was driven to the flight, before going “into the bulk hold of the aircraft alone”.

Meredith then allegedly put the baggage onto the loader transporting it down to the tarmac.

At the other end, a colleague who police allege was also in on the syndicate paid particular attention to “two sports bags” which he put specifically into a tub.

These bags, police allege, contained the 38 kgs of methamphetamine.

He then drove them from the international airport to the domestic terminal and placed them on the baggage carousel for a recently arrived Jetstar flight.

Central Local Court heard on Thursday that the Australian Federal Police allege when an Air Canada plane touched down in Sydney on March 6, 2019, Meredith took off 38 kilograms of methamphetamine. Picture: Supplied

Inside the terminal a punter – who again police was allege was in on the scheme – collected those bags and walked out the doors of the terminal.

Meredith’s solicitor Avni Dejmal had told the court several days earlier in making an application for his client’s bail that there were some aspects of the AFP case that were “inconsistent”.

But while Magistrate Farnan admitted it was a “circumstantial case”, she said in her view the evidence relied on by the Commonwealth Prosecution meant it was far from a “weak” case.

In particular she pointed to the encrypted messenger chats in which police allege Meredith was referred to as “F” – the first initial of his name – and “Ground Two”, a reference to his role as a member of the airport ground crew.

She told the court in one of the messages a reference was also made to a “Frank”, Meredith’s first name.

“There is an overwhelming circumstantial case that in fact Mr Meredith who at the time the communications were taking place was working for DNATA at the airport, and was in the vicinity where the device whose data was being used was located,” Magistrate Farnan said.

“The people involved in those communications were trying to bring something illegal in through Sydney Airport.

As part of their investigations the AFP seized approximately $100,000 they allege was proceeds of crime. Police supplied image

“The person using Ground Two was certainly trying to recruit other people to help with the importation.”

The court heard that with her husband on remand in Parklea Correctional Centre, Meredith’s wife – who has also been charged by the AFP with dealing with the proceeds of crime – was “suffering hardship”.

But Magistrate Farnan told the court that even though his brother-in-law and a neighbour had offered to aid in paying his surety, because the case against him was not “weak” she could not grant bail.

Meredith, who is charged with importing a border controlled drug, was remanded in custody to reappear in Central Local Court on August 4.