Operation Ironside: Full list of celebrities, bikies arrested
Dozens of Comanchero bikies, two reality TV stars, Mafia figures and a man with $1.5m in alleged dirty cash were caught in cops’ AN0M sting of the century.
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Dozens of Comanchero bikies, two reality TV contestants, Mafia figures and a man with $1.5m in alleged dirty cash are among more than 100 people arrested by police in the AN0M sting of the century.
In NSW, police arrested an alleged member of a syndicate connected to the Lone Wolf bikie gang and allegedly found a staggering $1m in cash hidden in two sports bags in his garage.
Edward George “Etu’’ Lavulo, 32, of Marsden Park, was charged with dealing with the proceeds of crime after police took possession of the two sports bags – and another $500,000 allegedly found in a suitcase in a vehicle.
Police also said they had seized a money-counting machine, mobile phones and two encrypted devices from the US national.
His younger brother Judah Earl Lavulo, 30, was also arrested for allegedly dealing in proceeds of crime, after police found $100,000 at his home in Edmondson Park.
In related raids, police charged another seven men in what they alleged was a criminal syndicate connected to the Lone Wolf gang.
Across the nine raids, they seized 700kg of methamphetamine, designer watches and $2.6m in cash.
It was alleged the syndicate used encrypted devices to organise multiple drug imports from South Korea.
In Queensland, a Ninja Warrior TV contestant and a former Bandidos bikie have been arrested in Brisbane and charged with a string of drug offences.
Sopiea Kong, 33, was charged last week after police raided a Kangaroo Point property and allegedly seized a revolver with no serial number, about 154g of meth, and allegedly fake identification – including Medicare cards, a passport copy and driver’s licence, mobile phones and $2030 in cash.
She was charged with numerous matters including trafficking and possessing dangerous drugs, obtaining or dealing with identification information and unlawful possession of weapons, and bailed to reappear in court on June 28.
Her co-accused, former Bandido Benjamin Joseph Thornton, 31, was arrested at a house at Coorparoo, with police alleging they seized two mobile phones and a small amount of cocaine.
He appeared in court on June 3 charged with trafficking dangerous drugs, possessing dangerous drugs, several counts of obtaining or dealing with identification information and possessing a restricted drug (Viagra).
He was remanded to appear in court again on June 14.
Another reality TV contestant, former The Bachelorette contestant Samuel Minkin, 28, was charged with possessing a large commercial quantity of cannabis after police stopped a white van travelling south of Byron Bay on May 28.
Inside, they allegedly discovered 166kg of cannabis in vacuum-packed bags.
Police also seized a roll of tape with a hair strand, and seven mobile phones.
Minkin and another man, 39-year-old Aaron Mark Hyde, both appeared in court last week.
In Victoria, police say they have landed a devastating blow on Australia’s largest outlaw motorcycle gang, arresting 20 Comanchero members and several associates alleged to be members of Middle Eastern organised crime groups.
Police burst through the doors of 18 bikies and associates, allegedly seizing encrypted devices, phones and $200,000 in cash.
Drugs, firearms, proceeds of crime and conspiracy to undertake serious assault charges will be laid.
Those arrested included Christian Taumoefolau, 31, of Thornhill Park, the Comanchero’s sergeant-at-arms.
Police will allege he was involved in firearms and trafficking offences.
Muhammed Topal, 25, the brother of high-ranking Comanchero figure Hasan Topal, who has fled to Turkey, was also arrested and will face firearm and trafficking charges.
A well-known Comanchero, Luke Jolly-Bishop, 28, of Hampton Park, was arrested, as was another high-ranking gang member, Eren Kaya, 28.
In an unrelated operation in NSW, another Comanchero sergeant-at-arms, Emmanuel Vamvoukakis, was charged after a dramatic raid which saw the police blow the door off his house.
Heavily-armed tactical police swooped on his Mount Keira home in the Wollongong area in the early hours of Sunday, handcuffing the 40-year-old and charging him with conspiring to import cocaine, dealing with the proceeds of crime, and directing the activities of a criminal organisation.
Police allege Vamvoukakis, 40, is the sergeant-at-arms of the NSW South Coast Comancheros and the director of a criminal enterprise that they say was involved in money-laundering and importing, manufacturing and trafficking illicit drugs.
Police also allege he was conspiring with an offshore associate to import cocaine into Australia from Greece, hidden in olive oil.
More than 150 AFP and NSW police were involved in five raids on Sunday at Mount Keira, Horsley, Shell Cove and Grabben Gullen.
A second man, Luke Andreou, 31, was arrested at his Horsley home and charged with money-laundering offences, and possessing drugs and firearms.
Police conducting the searches across the five locations seized more than half a million in cash – $290,000 allegedly linked to Vamvoukakis and $230,000 allegedly linked to Andreou.
They also seized a cash-counting machine, Comanchero bikie paraphernalia, 11 mobile phones, seven encrypted devices, three vehicles including an Audi RS7, a Ducati motorcycle and a Harley-Davidson with “Comanchero” insignia and an unauthorised police uniform.
Both men were due to appear in the Wollongong Local Court late Monday.
In unrelated raids on an alleged money-laundering syndicate, a woman was arrested in Victoria after police found a suitcase stuffed with $700,000 in what they allege is dirty money.
A 34-year-old woman from suburban Richmond was charged with proceeds-of-crime offences after a search at her home turned up a blue suitcase filled with the cash, which police allege was proceeds-of-crime profits.
An alleged co-offender, a 48-year-old Richmond man, was also charged after a vehicle was intercepted in suburban Brighton and a shopping bag containing $40,000 seized.
In Adelaide, six men were charged after police raided what they allege was a safe house run by members of the Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang.
The men, aged between 32 and 45, were charged with drug trafficking after police seized more than 320kg of dried cannabis and $50,000 in cash at a home in Northfield in suburban Adelaide in February. Police allege they are all associated with the Rebels.
Police in Melbourne arrested a man they allege is a serious organised crime figure – Dale David Williams.
The 38-year-old is alleged to have been instrumental in the planning of a 360kg importation of crystal methamphetamine into Australia in 2020, which was shipped from Malaysia in a consignment of furniture.
Police allege he was a ringleader of the syndicate which organised the importation, worth an estimated $180m, and he was the fourth person charged in relation to it.
Another man alleged by police to be a high-ranking crime figure, Danny Zayneh, was in custody on Monday night.
Zayneh was accused by police of involvement in a Victorian criminal syndicate conspiring to import 1.6 tonnes of methamphetamine and cocaine into Australia from the US and India between July and October.
Seven people alleged to be involved in the syndicate were arrested as a result of the intelligence collected from the AN0M device.
And in the first international case to emerge publicly, a 39-year-old man was arrested near Pretoria in South Africa last week after allegedly being caught towing a boat filled with 800kg of pure compressed cocaine.
Police alleged the cocaine, worth about $39m, was being stockpiled by an international drug-trafficking syndicate ahead of export to Europe and Australia.
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