AFP details $135m drug syndicate busted in Ciphr operation

On the surface, they led normal-looking lives. Behind the scenes, three Sydney men were plotting to import 180kg of meth and dozens of guns. For the first time, the inside story of the AFP operation to catch them can be revealed.

A financier, an organiser and a delivery boy thought they were onto a winner with a plan to import $135 million worth of meth — but the AFP was watching their every move.

For almost a year federal police officers listened in on phone calls and scrutinised three Sydney men leading normal-seeming lives.

But behind closed doors they ran a drugs syndicate that threatened to bring kilos of the scourge onto our streets.

For the first time the AFP is revealing the inside story of Operation Cearus-Braint, which could not be told for almost two years until a suppression order expired this month.

In total, their work stopped 180kg of meth and dozens of guns from reaching the streets of Melbourne.

Chester Hill man Jim Luong pleaded guilty to his role in the drug smuggling.

AFP officers also uncovered cash in their investigation. Picture: Australian Federal Police

Karan Sharma, 22, Jim Luong, 27, and Quang Phuc Ngo, 30, are now spending between seven and 10 years in a prison after their plot to import the meth hidden in tea bags stuffed in fridges was busted.

All three men pleaded guilty to firearm possession and serious drug supply offences in Parramatta District Court this month.

Police alleged in court Sharma would finance the shipments, Ngo would pick up the consignments, and Luong would organise the logistics of the import from Malaysia.

Like a well-oiled machine, they knew their roles and how to make themselves seem legitimate.

“I really think with this syndicate they were very diligent in the way they arranged the imports,” Detective Inspector Rick Briggs said.

“There was a lot of patience in establishing everything from forming the business to making it took legitimate.

“They were a significant organised crime syndicate who had the means to import a significant quantity of meth and no doubt if we hadn’t seized this they would have been an enduring threat … but for the tenacity of our investigators.”

Some of the drugs seized by AFP officers. Picture: Australian Federal Police

Insp Briggs was one of a score of agents here and overseas who patiently watched the group for months as they plotted their big score.

Using their encrypted “Ciphr” devices, the group would have multiple group chats, but it was one of their public messages that led to their downfall.

“Hi boys we have a live one this week,” the message read.

Most of the messages “were not that interesting” Insp Briggs said, but it was a key piece of the puzzle investigators needed to solve in a bid to track just how these men planned to bring the meth Down Under.

That text came in the day before the shipment from Malaysia was due to arrive, leaving AFP officers scrambling to intercept the package after a 10-hour flight.

The operation also uncovered illegal firearms. Picture: Australian Federal Police

Using the cover of a legitimate cleaning business and Gumtree ads to book courier jobs, from the outside it would appear as if there was nothing fishy about the trio’s lives.

Their “dry runs” sending other materials had been ­successful in the months prior — or so they thought — and after a few false starts thanks to Covid-19 and supply chain ­issues in Asia they rolled the dice.

The AFP had been watching them since mid-2019 but police said the key to their level of commitment was their patience to see it through.

Just a day after the consignment landed in Melbourne on September 17, 2020 the three men were greeted with a knock at the door and an arrest warrant.

The Chester Hill, Gregory Hills and Chipping Norton men were found to have had AN0M devices, fake identity documents and $300,000 in cash when they were raided.

Text messages located by the AFP as part of the sting.

AFP Inspector Rick Briggs.

Just what they were planning to do with the drugs once they arrived — and why three Sydneysiders were trying to distribute drugs in Melbourne — was never uncovered by police, but what they did discover was that a web of “international players” in Malaysia were behind the drugs.

On top of the big profits to be made, police said the haul would have amounted to 1.8 million street deals.

Describing Luong and Sharma as “trusted members” of the international syndicate, Insp Briggs said their case served as a lesson to cleanskins looking to make a play in the underworld.

On social media Luong portrayed a law-abiding life, posting for fun selfies with his partner, playing around at watering holes and enjoying the night-life around Sydney.

All of that is a world away from the prison cell he now calls home.

“It’s 10 years in prison and they’re going to miss out on a significant portion of young adulthood,” he said.

“The risk to themselves with the firearms, it is a ­potentially violent world they were playing in and it can be seriously dangerous to yourself and the community you live in.

“It’s certainly not worth it.”

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