Sebastian Barnard, Matthew Doyle, Adam Hunter: Biggest drug busts of 2021
Police are at war with drug dealers, with more than a billion dollars of illicit substances taken off the streets in recent months. These are some of the biggest dealers to appear before the courts in 2021.
NSW
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Police are at war with drug dealers.
Over the past 12 months, the state’s courtrooms have heard details of the weird and woeful ways drugs have been imported, manufactured and moved into and across the country, as well as the police operations which have brought down some of the state’s biggest drug dealers.
Here are 10 of the biggest dealers to appear before the courts over the last 12 months.
Christopher Preca and Jackson Giles-Adams
1.5 tonnes of cocaine
Estimated value: $356m – $496m
Mates Christopher Preca, 34, and Jackson Giles-Adams, 28 attempted to import 1.5 tonnes of cocaine into Australia in the hull of a fishing trawler named Coralynne.
The pair travelled 190 nautical miles from Newcastle over two days to meet a large Chinese fishing vessel named the ‘Zhi Vu Yun’.
On its return home on the morning of August 15, 2020 about 150 nautical miles off the east coast of NSW, the Coralynne was stopped by a NSW Police vessel.
When police later returned to the ship, they found 77 hessian-wrapped packages, with a total of 1890 individual 1kg packages with compressed white powder.
Analysis found this to be about 1.5 tonnes of pure cocaine, with an estimated value of between about $356m and $496m.
The AFP has said it was the biggest single coke bust ever in Australia.
Last month they were sentenced to 17 years each in prison.
Read the full story here.
Sebastian Barnard
991kg of meth
Estimated value: $495m
A British man who picked up nearly a tonne of ice on a yacht in the Pacific Ocean before sailing towards Australia was jailed for more than 16 years over the massive attempted drug importation.
Sebastian Barnard, 35, took the risk with “his eyes wide open”, sentencing Judge Garry Neilson told the court in July, when he headed to a location near Norfolk Island last year and transferred the 991kg of meth from a Mexican mothership to his vessel, the La Fayette.
New Caledonian authorities had information about the plot and tipped off NSW Police, who intercepted the La Fayette before it reached its intended destination of Broken Bay.
The illegal cargo was worth almost half a billion dollars.
Judge Neilson sentenced Barnard to 16 years and six months jail with a non-parole period of 11 years over attempting to import a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug.
With time already served, he will be 45 when he’s first eligible for parole in 2040.
Read the full story here.
Adam Phillip Hunter aka ‘Pablo Excavator’
332.1kg of cocaine
Estimated value: $140 million
A broke salesman known as “Pablo Excavator” was recruited by a mystery ‘coffee man’ to help smuggle 384kg of cocaine hidden inside an excavator from South Africa.
Adam Phillip Hunter, 35, pleaded guilty in 2020 to attempting to import $140 million of cocaine inside a second-hand excavator in 2019.
He got the nickname online after the notorious Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar.
The court heard Hunter played a “critical role” with the large-scale drug syndicate for months following his recruitment by “coffee man” in March or April 2019.
When Border Force intercepted, they found 348 plastic-wrapped 1kg blockers concealed in the hydraulic arm of the machine. It was 332.1kg of cocaine.
He was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment in September.
Read the full story here.
Matthew Doyle
300kg of cocaine (although never existed)
Estimated value: $80 million
A rising property developer and young father was jailed after a police sting caught him in a bumbling attempt to bring cocaine worth more than $80 million into Australia.
Matthew James Doyle, 32, is now set to appeal his jail sentence in the NSW Supreme Court.
Doyle was sentenced to at least five years behind bars in September 2020 after he pleaded guilty to supplying cocaine and dealing with more than $500,000 in crime proceeds.
However, the cocaine never actually existed and it was all part of the trap set by police.
The Burraneer property developer and his co-accused – eastern suburbs party boys Jared Hart and Raoul Kesby – were ensnared in an elaborate police sting which blew up their plans to supply up to 300kg of cocaine worth a whopping $85 million.
At sentencing his barrister, Phillip Boulten SC, had argued for leniency based on the fact the 300kg of drugs Doyle intended to receive never actually existed.
The District Court heard Doyle had been unknowingly plotting a major drug importation with undercover police operatives from the plan’s inception at a meeting in Los Angeles in April 2019.
Read the full story here.
Keith Anderson
42.3kg of cannabis, 106.53g of cocaine, 139.41g of methylamphetamine and 309.6g of 3,4-Methylenedioxyamphetamine
Estimated value: Unknown
Keith Anderson was barefoot, dishevelled and under the influence of drugs when he crashed his Toyota Landcruiser into the back of another car on the M1 sending 42kg of cannabis, more than 100g of cocaine and $39,000 in cash strewn across the motorway.
In the 38-year-old’s ute, police found three mobile phones, a vacuum sealer, cash bundled in elastic bands, a 45cm machete, a Winchester hunting knife, 42.3kg of cannabis, 106.53g of cocaine, 139.41g of methylamphetamine and 309.6g of 3,4-Methylenedioxyamphetamine.
They also discovered seven firearms registered to Anderson in a grey box along with ammunition.
The Rockhampton man has since pleaded guilty to two counts of supplying a commercial quantity of drugs, three counts of supplying an indictable quantity of drugs, knowingly deal with the proceeds of crime and not keeping a firearm safely.
He will be sentenced early next year.
Read the full story here.
Dov Tenenboim
At least 2kg of cocaine, 500 grams of MDMA and 1kg of ketamine. Judge noted the quantities were the ‘tip of the iceberg’.
Estimated value: Unknown
A Bitcoin drug baron who flooded Sydney’s east with literal designer-branded drugs, told his family “it is what it is” after he was given at least a decade in prison.
The Vaucluse “elite hacker”, Dov Tenenboim, 36, vowed to appeal his sentence as his family yelled out support over his online court hearing in September this year.
Tenenboim was arrested in mid-2018 after police unravelled his “sophisticated” and “persistent” drug import business, NSW District Court Judge Ian McClintock SC said at his sentencing.
A European underworld figure, known by the pseudonym Mike Allen, helped Tenenboim procure his illicit wares from abroad for the first year via the dark web, the court heard.
The operation relied on sophisticated technology but simple strategy — the drugs would arrive in Sydney hidden in candles or baby formula, addressed to fake names in the city’s east.
Kilograms of drugs — cocaine, MDMA and ketamine — largely escaped detection by the authorities.
Their customers were other drug networks, the judge said.
Tenenboim was given 16 years and four months prison with a non parole period of 10 and a half years.
Read the full story here.
Cody Ronald Ward
1.652kg of MDMA, more than 90,000 tabs of LSD, 1.19kg of amphetamine, 225g of MDMA.
Estimated value: $17m
The baby-faced south coast kingpin, who used the dark web to sell his wares, which included drugs worth about $17 million, will spend at least 10 years behind bars.
Cody Ronald Ward, 27, known as dark web vendor ‘NSWGreat’, pleaded guilty to three counts of importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug and three counts of supplying a prohibited drug greater than a commercial quantity last year, and blamed the online world of “virtual drug dealing” for his offending.
District Court Judge Robyn Tupman sentenced Ward, in charge of Australia’s longest running dark web drug syndicate, to 14 years behind bars, with a non-parole period of 10 years in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court in May.
Judge Tupman told the court Ward’s sophisticated cryptocurrency business conducted 10,500 transactions over the Dream Market marketplace, becoming the longest running dark web drug vendor in Australia.
Ward pleaded guilty to importing 1651.99g of MDMA, 1916.5g of amphetamine and 88,308 tabs of LSD between 2018 and 2019. A number of packages were intercepted by Australian Border Force and NSW Police.
He also pleaded guilty to supplying 2759 tabs of LSD, 1.19kg of amphetamine and 225g of MDMA.
Read the full story here.
Kyle Thompson
7kg of methylamphetamine, 267g of cocaine, 903g of heroin and 73.7g of MDMA
Estimated value: Unknown
A regional NSW drug syndicate boss paid a corrupt Corrective Services worker to smuggle buprenorphine strips into a jail and sent a man to a McDonald’s restaurant to pick up a delivery worth $179,000.
Kyle Thompson, 35, of Wellington, has been remanded in custody since his arrest in May 2020.
He recently entered pleas of guilty in Dubbo Local Court to charges including knowingly directing the activities of a criminal group, knowingly dealing with proceeds of crime, supplying a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug, possessing more than three prohibited firearms and corruptly giving or offering an agent a benefit.
According to a statement of agreed facts, between June 2019 and May 2020, Thompson received a staggering 7.08kg of methylamphetamine, 267g of cocaine and 903g of heroin from a Sydney man who was his upline supplier.
He also knowingly took part in the supply of 73.7g of MDMA.
During their investigation, police also discovered Thompson was involved in a plot to introduce buprenorphine strips to Wellington jail.
The facts document states Thompson paid a corrupt NSW Correctional Officer $1500 to take strips into their place of work at the jail.
His case returns to court in December when a sentencing date is due to be set.
Read the full story here.
Josiah James Burton
5kg of ephedrine and 1.5kg of methylamphetamine
Estimated value: Unknown
A man who was supposed to be managing his mother’s rental properties but instead allowed them to be used to warehouse drugs was discovered after someone left the oven on causing it to billow out smoke.
Josiah James Burton, 34, sometimes known by the last name Flanagan, pleaded guilty to two counts of knowingly take part in the supply of a large commercial drug relating to the 25kg of ephedrine, 1.5kg of methylamphetamine and 319.2g GBL officers found across two apartments in the complex on Phillip St in Redfern.
He was sentenced to five years and six months jail with a non-parole period of two years nine months in the Sydney District Court in late October.
Read the full story here.
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