Top silk Bret Walker SC hired by alleged drug smugglers to have AN0M evidence ruled illegal

A group of accused drug smugglers and dealers have formed a coalition to have the evidence from a worldwide police sting ruled inadmissable.

A group of accused drug smugglers and dealers arrested in a worldwide police sting have formed a coalition in an attempt to have the evidence against them ruled illegal.

And they have pooled their resources to have Australia’s most revered barrister, Bret Walker SC – rumoured to charge $25,000 a day for his services — make it happen.

The group of almost 30 ­accused are facing charges of allegedly arranging for millions of dollars worth of illegal drugs to be either smuggled into Australia, or distributed once it got here, using an encrypted phone network known as AN0M.

The phones were thought to have impenetrable encryption that prevented police from ­secretly monitoring the text messages sent on the devices.

But they were revealed in 2021 to have been part of a worldwide police sting where investigators were able to monitor the conversations ­occurring on the devices.

At the centre of the legal ­action is the platform on which the AN0M messages were sent.

As part of the sting, the messages sent between users of the AN0M phones were ­secretly copied and sent to servers controlled by police.

The AN0M app will be the subject of a legal battle. Picture: Olivier Morin/AFP

Mr Walker will be asked to investigate the question of whether the platform was leg­ally covered by the warrants obtained by the police to intercept the messages and then use them in court as evidence.

If the courts answer the question in their favour, the accused men will attempt to have the evidence collected during the sting ruled inadmissable. This has the potential to have a massive impact on the more than 200 people charged over the AN0M operation.

As part of their argument, the coalition will examine ­exactly how the AN0M technology works.

In Central Local Court on Wednesday lawyers Greg Goold and Kiki Kyriacou, who represent a number of the ­accused men, successfully asked the court to set down a timetable for hearings that will seek to establish the evidence to be used in the argument.

There are currently six lawyers representing the group, including Steven Zahr, who at this stage is representing seven of the accused, but more ­accused are likely to join the action. Central to the case will be whether warrants used as a justification to intercept the text messages from the AN0M phones were covered by Australian and NSW laws.

The central question will be whether the platform or computer program used to intercept the messages was covered by the wording of the warrants and domestic legislation.

The AN0M operation made world headlines on June 8, 2021, when it was revealed as a police sting. More than 800 people were arrested in simultaneous raids in 16 countries.

One of the key figures in the operation was drug trafficker Hakan Ayik, who was targeted by undercover operatives as someone who had the influence to convince others in the underworld to use the phone after he was tricked into ­endorsing the device.

Another major AN0M arrest was that of Mostafa Baluch, ­ accused of smuggling 900kg of cocaine from South America.  

Baluch was controversially granted bail, went on the run and was discovered hiding in a truck near the Queensland border. He is not part of the combined action, his lawyer said.