Strike Force Spartan: Mitchell Gow, of Ourimbah, pleads guilty to supplying almost 1kg of cocaine

A man caught with almost 1kg of cocaine, a replica pistol and 15 rounds of ammunition has pleaded guilty to his role in supplying drugs from a Central Coast self storage shed. Read the details.

A second man has pleaded guilty to his role in supplying cocaine from a self storage shed after state and federal police conducted four simultaneous raids across the Central Coast.

Mitchell Gow, 40, of Ourimbah, faced Wyong Local Court on Tuesday, May 20, where he pleaded guilty to participating in a criminal group, supplying almost 1kg of cocaine, possessing a replica gel blaster pistol and possessing ammunition without a permit.

It comes after another man, Oliver Jovanovic Dedich, 41, of Berkeley Vale, pleaded guilty last month to supplying a large commercial quantity of drugs, recklessly dealing with the proceeds of crime and possessing unauthorised replica pistols.

Detectives from the National Anti-Gangs Squad (NAGS) — comprising officers from the State Crime Command’s Criminal Groups Squad and Australian Federal Police — commenced an investigation under Strike Force Spartan in November 2022 into an alleged organised criminal syndicate facilitating the supply of prohibited drugs on the Central Coast.

Gow and Dedich were among four men arrested in a series of co-ordinated raids on March 30, 2023, at homes in Ourimbah, Empire Bay, Berkeley Vale and Chittaway Bay.

Gow was arrested on March 30, 2023, at his Ourimbah home. (Picture: NewsCorp)

An agreed set of facts states strike force police had the men under surveillance when they followed Gow to a self storage facility at Blade Close, Berkeley Vale, on February 8, 2023.

Police obtained CCTV and PIN-code access records from the facility and installed their own covert surveillance camera above the unit to track the comings and goings from the shed.

Police followed Gow to a self storage facility at Blade Close, Berkeley Vale. Picture: Google

Gow was tracked attending the unit 25 times.

“The offender was seen carrying and removing various items from the unit during that period, namely packages and parcels, plastic carry bags, a khaki-coloured duffel bag, a black and grey-coloured shoulder bag,” the facts state.

Police secretly searched the unit on March 14 where they found various drug paraphernalia,

cocaine drug testing kits, a money counter and a set of small digital scales.

Officers also seized a compressed 405.6g block of cocaine which had Gow’s fingerprints on it.

Gow was arrested as part of four simultaneous raids across the coast. (Picture: NewsCorp)

Almost two weeks later police raided the four mens’ homes including Gow’s 1ha semirural property on Chittaway Drive, Ourimbah.

At the home police found several bags of cocaine weighing a total of 581.6g, a replica gel blaster pistol and 15 rounds of ammunition for three different calibre firearms.

Gow was arrested and taken to Gosford Police Station where he participated in an electronically recorded interview but denied that anything found in the storage unit was placed there by him and refused to answer any questions about the items found at his property.

In total Gow pleaded guilty to supplying 987.2g of cocaine, being the cocaine seized at his house and the storage shed.

He was adjourned to face Gosford District Court on June 19 to fix a sentence date.

Dedich is listed for sentence in the same court on November 7.