Baluch joins AN0M challenge as lawyers consider fighting search warrants

More than 50 alleged AN0M criminals are pushing toward a landmark legal challenge they hope could derail the police case against them - now one of the most infamous accused men has joined the legal bid

Accused AN0M drug criminals could try to have police warrants, used to raid their palatial homes, sports cars and safes, declared invalid in a daring legal strategy they hope could derail multiple police prosecutions.

It comes as one of Australia’s most notorious alleged drug kingpins, Mostafa Baluch, joins the landmark legal challenge to have allegedly incriminating AN0M messages thrown out of court.

More than 380 Australians were charged, drug syndicates unravelled and murder plots unearthed when the Australian Federal Police revealed an encrypted app, AN0M, was actually an invention of international law enforcement.

Alleged drug kingpins, Mostafa Baluch has joined a landmark legal challenge to AN0M.

Police swept through sprawling and incognito properties across NSW in mid-2021, seizing designer watches, jewels, sports cars and, allegedly, evidence of criminal activity.

Now more than 50 of the alleged criminals have launched a joint legal challenge that - they hope - will result in the courts prohibiting police from using the AN0M messages in evidence.

Police seized sports cars during raids..

Along with luxury watches.

The Daily Telegraph understands that, if that challenge is successful, AN0M lawyers expect more than a dozen prosecutions will fail because the messages are the only evidence against their clients.

It can also be revealed that, if the AN0M messages are invalid, numerous police warrants would likely face their own legal challenges as a result.

Lawyers for the accused AN0M criminals, it’s understood, would argue warrants obtained on the back of improperly intercepted messages should also be declared void.

It’s unknown how many of the AFP’s 778 warrants, if any, relied on the messages intercepted in AN0M or how many police cases would be impacted.

Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Nigel Ryan addresses the media during a press conference on Operation Ironside.

The Downing Centre Local Court, on Wednesday, heard the numerous lawyers involved in challenging the AN0M messages were unlikely to all be available in February 2023, the first date available for the challenge.

The court heard that Baluch was now among the more than 50 accused men jointly forming the challenge against the admissibility of the AN0M messages.

The former owner of Cervo restaurant was allegedly a driving force behind an attempt to import an estimated 900 kilograms of cocaine into Australia, worth an estimated $270m.

He has been accused by police of using the ANOM app to conduct alleged drug transactions.

The group is being represented by prominent barrister Bret Walker SC, considered one of the country’s top silks who has previously represented the likes of George Pell.

The defence is trying to establish whether the messages were obtained under the Telecommunications Act or the Surveillance Devices Act, which is central to the messages being inadmissable.

If the lawyers are unable to match their schedules then the legal challenge may not be heard until well into 2023.

Meanwhile dozens and dozens of accused men will remain behind bars in remand centres across Sydney and NSW.

Those in custody did not apply for bail on Wednesday.

The court, on Wednesday, heard the next step in the case is for police to hand over an expert report about the way the messages were obtained from AN0M.

Lawyers for the AN0M accused are also waiting on their own experts to access and analyse the AN0M source code after a South Australian court granted them access in recent weeks.