Operation Ironside: AFP seize assets including cash, luxury properties and cars

Operation Ironside police have seized luxury properties, millions in cash, cryptocurrency and fancy cars as they continue to smash bikies, Mafia figures and money-launderers. SEE THE LIST

Exclusive: A luxury rural retreat, a beachside hideaway, millions in cash and cryptocurrency and $1 million worth of fancy cars are among assets seized by authorities as Operation Ironside continues to devastate the criminal underworld.

Twenty-one family homes, apartments and investment properties, $12 million in cash, dozens of designer watches and collector’s item cars including a classic 1956 Chevrolet Belair have been seized from people suspected of being bikies, Mafia figures, money-launderers and drug-traffickers.

Australian Federal Police following the money trail exposed by the secret police Trojan horse encrypted app AN0M have gone to court to restrain $31.1 million in assets alleged to have been purchased with the proceeds of crime.

If the courts agree, the assets will be permanently forfeited, sold off, and the proceeds put into a Federal Government account to spend on community safety and crime prevention programs.

Commander of the AFP-led Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce Stephen Fry said the loss of a valuable asset often hurt a criminal more than a jail sentence.

A 1956 Chevrolet Black Belair Convertible. Picture: Getty

“Our strategy ensures that when offenders have served their prison sentence they do not come home to enjoy their criminal wealth, property portfolio, cars, boats and jewellery all paid for by the proceeds of crime,’’ he said.

“They’re not happy. They don’t like it all. Those involved in serious and organised crime know that going to prison is sometimes part of the business, but when their assets get taken away from them, that hurts them.’’

Among the assets seized are a rural idyll with an in-ground pool, purpose-built cinema room and sweeping lawns in Quorrobolong, New South Wales, worth $1.1 million.

A seized property in Quorrobolong, NSW. Picture: Supplied

The owner of the Quorrobolong property was also arrested. Picture: Supplied

The owner of the Quorrobolong house, Christopher John Mealey, 51, was arrested in June at the property and charged with dealing in the proceeds of crime.

Police seized a number of items and alleged they had found $4.9 million in cash in the walls of a Colourbond shed on the property.

The matter is listed for court on Wednesday December 22.

Operation Ironside: Assets seized by the AFP’s Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce

• 21 homes and investment properties worth a total of $16.1 million
  $12.1 million in cash
• 18 bank accounts and share portfolios worth a total of $1.6 million
• 11 cars worth a total of $1 million
• $250,000 in cryptocurrency

Also in NSW, a renovated beachside hideaway in coastal Wamberal has been restrained. The properties appear to be owned by the same person, who is facing proceeds of crime charges.

In South Australia, a newly-built home at Kudla, near Mount Gawler, which comes with a small grove of olive trees, has been restrained. A block of units in Windsor Gardens in suburban Adelaide has also been restrained under a court order.

Criminal syndicates were targeted under the AFP-led Operation Ironside. Picture: AFP

And in Melbourne, a three-bedroom home in outer-suburban Sydenham has also been seized. The home changed hands in June last year under a “nils and wills’’ provision, meaning it was potentially gifted for free, or given as an inheritance.

Some of the items were quietly frozen by the courts days before police swooped and made almost 300 arrests in June.

Other seizures came after police conducted hundreds of raids across Australia.

The Taskforce revealed it had now restrained more than $31 million in assets as a result of Operation Ironside, including 18 bank accounts and share portfolios across New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria worth $1.6 million. Six bank accounts each held more than $100,000, while one person saw their $250,000 cryptocurrency stash seized.

Wads of cash were found under the AFP-led Operation Ironside. Picture: AFP

The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 allows police to seize assets even if the person is never charged with a crime. The taskforce comprises AFP, the Australian Taxation Office, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, AUSTRAC, and the Australian Border Force and employs police, lawyers, financial investigators, forensic accountants and analysts who work together in shared offices.

It aims to disrupt further offending and stop offenders profiting from their crimes.

“What we are trying to do is break that cycle of criminal money being invested in future criminal activities and funding lavish lifestyles, that money should instead go to the benefit of the community and it does under the system that is in place,’’ Commander Fry said.

Originally published as Operation Ironside: AFP seize assets including cash, luxury properties and cars