Emmanuel Vamvoukakis: Alleged Wollongong bikie in AN0M court case

Police claimed in court an alleged senior Comanchero who is charged over a massive Greek coke plot was also a key distributor of AN0M devices among the criminal underworld.

An alleged top Illawarra bikie is accused of being one of the so-called ‘influencers’ who spread police infiltrated AN0M devices among the underworld, a court heard.

The alleged Comanchero south coast chapter sergeant-at-arms Emmannuel Vamvoukakis is alleged to have been a “vendor” of the AN0M devices which boasted complete protection from law enforcement snooping.

The devices, however, were in fact a Trojan horse planted by police who were able to listen in on every word and view every message.

Emmanuel Vamvoukakis. Picture: Facebook

The 41-year-old applied for bail in the Supreme Court on Thursday where his barrister Philip Strickland SC said he needed to be released to better instruct his lawyers in the complex police case against him.

Vamvoukakis was charged in June after the AFP foiled an alleged plot they say was hatched between Vamvoukakis and contacts in Greece to import cocaine into Australia.

Police said they have surveillance footage of Vamvoukakis from May of this year where a cash transaction of $50,000 was made in Newtown, telephone intercepts and a cache of messages from the AN0M device they allege he used under the name “Ice Cube,” the court heard.

AN0M being used on a handheld device.

Crown prosecutor Linda Barnes told the Supreme Court some of the messages identified Vamvoukakis as a key player in how the “encrypted” devices made their way into the hands of criminals.

“He was in fact selling Pixel devices which he used to operate AN0M … there were in property invoices and consignment notes for those devices (in the home),” she said.

“The Crown case is that he was selling those devices for $1600 each.

“The concern is he has had access to those devices, the ability to be connected to AN0M, to be a vendor of devices of AN0M and able to attain those is the real concern.”

Vamvoukakis during the raid on his Wollongong home.

Vamvoukakis is alleged to have had several of the devices in his home at the time of his arrest.

His barrister Mr Strickland said his mother was willing to put up the family home worth about $500,000 as a surety for his release and have him wear an ankle monitoring tag if granted bail.

He argued a digital report of the phone police tied Vamvoukakis to the “Ice Cube” device lacked evidence to prove it belonged to the 41-year-old.

Vamvoukakis is facing five charges relating to the alleged drug import and dealing with almost half a million dollars worth of what police say is the proceeds of crime.

Justice Robert Beech-Jones denied him bail and claimed the case against him was “strong”.

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