Police charge Gold Coast man after alleged sale of ballistics vests

A Gold Coast man charged with the alleged black market sale of tactical police vests has applied for bail. See the outcome

A Gold Coast man has faced court to apply for bail after being charged with the alleged black market sale of tactical police vests.

Detectives from the Mount Gravatt Criminal Investigation Branch charged Gilston man Andrew Allan Mestrinaro with seven charges of unlawfully supplying weapons relating to the alleged sale of the vests.

Mr Mestrinaro was one of several people allegedly at a property when a search warrant was carried out. He was arrested and charged with a string of offences and given bail.

The police vests are manufactured by Australian Defence Apparel

On Monday, Mr Mestrinaro was arrested again in relation to the same search warrant, and hit with another 66 charges including for the alleged sale of the police vests and for the trafficking and supply of dangerous drugs.

Mr Mestrinaro appeared in Southport Magistrates Court on Tuesday this week with an application for bail after the fresh charges. Police opposed it. Prosecutor Chris Freeman said the charges were “very serious” and the defendant had a history of failing to appear in court.

“Overall, this defendant is looking at a significant period of custody if he is found guilty,” Mr Freeman told the court.

“He would be a flight risk, and further he has shown himself to be an unacceptable risk of further offending”.

In defence of the application for bail, Mr. Mestrinaro’s lawyer James Grant argued his client had demonstrated he would comply with any bail conditions imposed by the court.

“These (charges) are from the exact same search warrant that he has already been given bail for” Mr Grant said.

Andrew Allan Mestrinaro charged over alleged sale of Police vests.

“For reasons unknown, it has taken seven months before he has been brought before the court, quite near where we’re very close to having resolved those other matters.”

Mr Grant questioned the police evidence over the latest round of charges linking Mestrinaro to the sale of the police weapons.

“When you look at the objection to bail, it’s scant on information that identifies the user of that phone as being Mr Mestrinaro.

“I accept at the time of the search warrant he was present but there were other people present at that address as well.”

Mr Mestrinaro was granted bail under strict conditions including that he surrender his passport and report to Broadbeach police station several times a week. He is banned from having encrypted messaging applications on his phone and must hand it to officers if requested.

In a seperate matter, earlier this year police charged 39-year-old Timothy Woodward over the alleged theft of 17 protective vests bound for use by Queensland Police. He claimed to have dumped the vests but there was no sign of them at the location where he said he discarded them. The items remain outstanding. Police sources say the vests, which protect against ballistic and edged weapons are worth a significant amount of money to organised crime groups, who could use them in attempts to impersonate police.