Operation Ironside: Accused drug dealer Nathan John Ralph refused home detention bail because of risk of reoffending

An alleged drug trafficker acquitted of dealing because police replaced the drugs with sugar was using the AN0M app hours after being cleared, a court has heard.

An accused drug trafficker who was acquitted of importing drugs because police had swapped them with sugar allegedly started using AN0M to order huge amounts of drugs only hours after he was cleared of the charges, a court has heard.

Nathan Ralph, 26, from Sheidow Park, was one of 40 people arrested as part of Operation Ironside earlier this month.

He was charged with trafficking in a large commercial quantity of a controlled drug across the Adelaide suburbs on March 19.

In the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Friday, Stacey Carter, for Ralph, asked her client be released on home detention bail to care for his sick father.

Magistrate John Wells heard Ralph’s father had been diagnosed as terminally ill if he did not receive a kidney transplant.

Ms Carter said Ralph’s father would be presenting to a hospital that morning after his dialysis treatment because his symptoms were getting worse.

However, a prosecutor told the court the detention application was opposed and would continue to be opposed.

“It has been apparent to Nathan Ralph that his father has been critically unwell for years,” the prosecutor said.

“And yet he has trafficked in a controlled drug, not just a suspicion but has pleaded guilty to trafficking, and now faces charges that sees him reincarcerated for alleged trafficking.

“The decision to make was Ralph’s a long time ago.

“If he wanted to be there for his father he needed to act in a way which didn’t see him incarcerated on those charges.”

Ralph was acquitted on June 1 of trafficking in a controlled drug after District Court Judge Timothy Heffernan found he had no case to answer because the drugs had been replaced with sugar.

Judge Heffernan said that as Ralph had never received the drugs, he could not be convicted of trafficking in them.

However, he said Ralph should have been charged with attempting to traffic in a controlled drug.

Ralph had been standing trial in the District Court after Australian Border Force Officers detected an “anomaly” in a package, which contained a novel and was sent from the United Kingdom to a unit at Seacliff.

Upon inspection, they allegedly found the book had been hollowed out and a plastic bag containing 99 grams of cocaine had been placed into the cavity.

In court on Friday the prosecutor alleged Ralph had been using the encrypted AN0M platform the same day as his acquittal.

“This defendant was acquitted in District Court at 10.06am on June 1 and the same day he is on the platform seeking to traffic in huge quantities of controlled drugs,” he said.

Ms Carter reiterated that her client was innocent until proven guilty on these charges and indicated she would be seeking a Supreme Court appeal on any decision to refuse bail.

Mr Wells denied Ralph bail.

Originally published as Operation Ironside: Accused drug dealer Nathan John Ralph refused home detention bail because of risk of reoffending