Luke Drever and Kevin Reilly to plead guilty over roles in major drug lab near Braidwood

Two men who have been behind bars for more than a year are set to fess up to their roles in a huge meth lab on a remote property, that authorities believe was run by a feared international criminal syndicate.

Two men who have spent more than a year behind bars are set to admit to their roles in a major meth lab which authorities believe was run by a feared international criminal syndicate.

Lawyers for Luke Drever, 38, and co-accused Kevin Reilly, 39, appeared briefly in Queanbeyan Local Court on Tuesday where they said they were in the final stages of negotiations with authorities over their clients’ roles in a huge meth lab on a remote property at Harolds Cross, between Braidwood and Captains Flat.

Police have long alleged Drever, who has a chemistry degree and who worked a day job in a landscaping business in the southern suburbs of Adelaide, was a Fly In Fly Out meth cook.

Both are charged with manufacturing a prohibited drug and have been behind bars on remand since January last year.

Luke Drever is accused of being a FIFO drug cook.

A police strike force investigated and dismantled a major meth lab at Harolds Cross last year. Picture: NSW Police

The raid on the remote shed uncovered 45kg of a substance police allege to be methamphetamine oil, which could have been turned into 40kg of the drug ice.

That amount, according to NSW police at the time of the duo’s arrest, would have had a street value of around $34 million.

So far, the only person sentenced over the syndicate has been a shadowy figure known only as “CRA20”, who was in November jailed for eight months for refusing to answer questions at a secret hearing of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.

Investigators believed that man was a delivery driver for the syndicate, and used a Ford Falcon with hidden compartments to deliver drugs on behalf of the syndicate’s leaders.

Police officers who were part of Strike Force Bluffview dismantling the drug lab at Harolds Cross, near Braidwood, last year. Picture: NSW Police

An ACIC lawyer told a hearing last year the lab was run by “a major drug syndicate with connections overseas that operates in multiple jurisdictions in Australia”.

“The (commission) believes that this syndicate involves at least a dozen persons and while the syndicate has recently been temporarily disrupted through the recent arrests of (Drever and Reilly) … the principals of the syndicate continue to have the capability and the intention to engage in major drug trafficking activities that can cause immense harm to the community.”

Both Drever and Reilly are due to return to court in June, as their lawyers and prosecutors negotiate a statements of agreed facts to be used in sentencing proceedings later this year.