ABC producer Ashley Hall met undercover cop after cold call

Former ABC producer Ashley Hall didn’t take many precautions before meeting an undercover cop for a drug sale.

Former ABC newsman Ashley Hall agreed to meet an undercover cop who cold-called him on WhatsApp and said he was looking for a “new up line supplier” as his regular one “was unreliable”.

Hall, an executive producer of the ABC’s flagship radio program AM who worked at the broadcaster for 18 years before he became a commercial drug supplier, wasn’t worried about selling large amounts of drugs to someone who contacted him out of the blue.

He should have been.

The 54-year-old had no idea his detectives had set up a strike force specifically to target and dismantle his inner city drug supply operation, according to an agreed set of facts tendered to the Sydney District Court that Hall has pleaded guilty to.

Hall worked for the ABC for almost 20 years

Despite the risks, Hall, a one time acting national editor for the ABC, told the undercover via text message they would need to meet before sitting down with him at a table inside Redfern’s Little Evie cafe on November 1, 2022.

The undercover was seated at a table and Hall “slowly approached and greeted him” before sitting down, the document said.

The exchange was secretly recorded by the undercover and filmed by a police team that were secretly positioned outside the cafe.

The former ABC presenter told the undercover that his drug supply business was split between “retail and wholesale”, but was tending towards the latter.

Hall explained he could supply drugs “with almost no notice” and had “two spline suppliers” that supplied him with drugs that were 95 per cent pure.

Hall met the undercover at Little Evie Cafe in Redfern on Nov 1, 2022

The boast was wrong. Police tests revealed the quality of Hall’s drugs was as low as 20 per cent (MDMA) and peaked at 84 per cent (cocaine).

Over the next month, the undercover bought more than $70,000 worth of the liquid party drugs, ice, cocaine and MDMA from the former ABC employee.

The meetings revealed Hall was operating out of a rotating series of inner city hotel rooms, which he used to store his drug and cash stock piles after booking in for only a few days at a time under his own name.

The details were revealed in the Downing Centre District Court on Friday where Hall is being sentenced after pleading guilty to supplying a large commercial quantity of drugs and other charges.

Hall’s lawyer Leo Premutico said, “My client, like many others before the justice system, found himself dealing with extremely difficult circumstances in his life.

Hall sold the undercover liquid party drugs in shampoo bottles

“So when a targeted operation encouraged him to supply drugs to an undercover police -- in quantities he had not dealt with before -- he did not engage the thought process to make the correct decision in how to deal with the situation,” Mr Premutico said.

Giving evidence, Hall told Judge Penny Hock he intended to rehabilitate himself and had been the victim of a drug dealer who threatened to harm his sister unless he paid $120,000.

MDMA featuring Gucci logos sold by Hall

Crown Prosecutor Lou Lungo asked Hall, “Are you making this up?”, which Hall denied.

According to court documents, at the end of his first meeting with the undercover, Hall got in the front seat of the cop’s car and passed him 496ml of GHB and 1g of ice for $2050 before suggesting they contact on the encrypted app Signal.

Drugs sold by Hall to the undercover

On November 8, the undercover upped the stakes and gave Hall $23,000 in exchange for 1.5 litres of GHB, three ounces of ice and 10 MDMA tablets with Gucci logos on them.

By this stage, Hall was operating out of the Fraser Suites on Kent St in the Sydney CBD.

Hall told the undercover to park in an undercover parking lot and almost missed the meeting when he missed three phone calls from the cop.

Hall on CCTV at one of the hotels he was using to run his drug operation

Two other similar purchases took place at the Central Park apartments at Chippendale on November 23 and Ibis Hotel on Darling Harbour on December 5.

Hall was arrested at Surry Hills on December 6, 2022, and police recovered $87,820 and drugs inside the Matra Hotel on Bond St.

Hall will be sentenced on August 30.