Trent Stevens, Tara Stephens-Biles, Mark Winters, arrested over alleged cannabis and meth operation
Two men and a woman allegedly hired “clean” rental cars from Canberra airport to run huge amounts of cannabis and meth from western Sydney to Queanbeyan.
Canberra Star
Don't miss out on the headlines from Canberra Star. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- ‘Disgraceful’: south coast kangaroo killer jailed
- Spy scandal: new details emerge in prosecution of Bernard Collaery
- Canberra bikie turned prostitute allegedly slept with gun beside bed
A group of drug runners used “clean” rental cars to ferry huge quantities of cannabis and meth from Western Sydney to Queanbeyan, NSW police allege.
Trent Richard Stevens, 30, of Bookham, west of Yass, was refused bail in Queanbeyan Local Court on Friday following his arrest a day earlier.
Magistrate Roger Clisdell said the case against Stevens fell short of being “overwhelming” but that he faced a long jail stint if convicted.
Stevens, an unemployed fencer, has been charged with participating in a criminal group, taking part in the supply of cannabis, and supplying a commercial quantity of methamphetamine.
In court documents, police allege Stevens and co-accused Tara Stephens-Biles, 30, who was arrested at Marulan in May, hired “clean” rental cars from the Canberra Airport to do drug runs from Sydney to Canberra.
Their alleged distributor of the drugs was Mark Winters, 60, who has also been arrested.
In a tapped phone call, Stephens-Biles is alleged to have said to Winters: “I just need some salad and veggies”.
“Police allege the reference to salad and veggies is a reference to cannabis”, the police statement of facts says.
Stevens and Stephens-Biles, were under surveillance in May when they drove to an underground carpark in de Witt St, Bankstown, where they waited for an hour, before returning down the Hume Hwy.
Police allege the trip was a drug run.
Later in May, Stevens and Stephens-Biles were pulled over on another alleged drug run, and police say they found 4.5kg of cannabis and more than 300g of meth, which Stephens-Biles allegedly took full responsibility for.
Stevens was released that day, but in an intercepted text message to Winters detailed in an alleged statement of facts, Stevens allegedly wrote: “It’s Trent, we have been pilled (sic) over and searched”.
“Tara got arrested and took the blame before I could, she has been taken to Goulburn and has court at 9am, I’m sorry”.
Stevens was arrested on Collett St, Queanbeyan, on Thursday.
In a statement, NSW Police said the arrests were a result of a targeted investigation into drug supply.
Investigators set up Task Force Bozos in March to specifically look into the drug trade around Queanbeyan.
Mr Clisdell accepted police prosecutor Sergeant Bernard Goonan’s argument that Stevens had not shown why he should be granted bail.
Sgt Goonan said Stevens’s father would be able to find “someone else in NSW” to help with fencing work.
Stevens’s, Stephens-Biles’s and Winters’s cases will return to Goulburn Local Court at a later date.