Court documents reveal Operation Ironside accused Joshua Richter sold his Craigmore house for one dollar

An Ironside accused facing drug and money laundering charges allegedly tried to keep his house from the clutches of police with a cunning plan. It didn’t work.

A month after an Operation Ironside accused was arrested and charged with serious drug and money laundering offences, he sold his northern suburbs house to his girlfriend – for the princely sum of $1.

Prosecutors have successfully applied to have the property and more than $50,000 in cash frozen after arguing the transfer was a way of shielding assets that could be considered the result of crime.

In documents released by the Supreme Court, police allege Joshua Richter was involved in trafficking large quantities of drugs as part of a “sophisticated and organised international criminal network”.

The Director of Public Prosecutions launched a court application to freeze Mr Richter’s property in November last year.

Prosecutors asked the court to freeze a $280,000 Craigmore property, which was held in Mr Richter’s partner’s name.

Joshua Mark Richter is charged with trafficking a controlled drug and manufacturing a controlled drug for sale.

Mr Richter was arrested on June 7 last year as part of Operation Ironside resolution day when law enforcement across the world swooped on alleged users of the AN0M encrypted app.

Six weeks after his arrest, on July 19, 2021, the Craigmore property was transferred from Mr Richter to his partner for $1.

In an affidavit lodged with the court, a detective said it was believed the transfer was an attempt by Mr Richter to shield the property from being frozen.

“The transfer of the Craigmore property occurred six weeks after the initial arrest of numerous suspects under Operation Ironside and details of the operation being disclosed to the public,” he wrote.

“I suspect that the transfer of the Craigmore property takes place at this time as an attempt by (Mr Richter) to dispose of assets that may be liable to forfeiture.”

The Craigmore home which court documents allege was sold by Operation Ironside accused Joshua Richter for just $1.

A Commonwealth Bank account containing $53,000.77 was also identified by police. Mr Richter’s partner is not accused of any wrongdoing.

On November 30, Justice Greg Parker ordered that the house be restrained and the money be frozen. The order does not prevent Mr Richter and his partner from living in the house but prevents them from taking out another mortgage, selling the house or significantly decreasing its value.

The freezing order was the latest in a co-ordinated assault by police on the assets of people arrested as part of the Operation Ironside sting.

Dozens of properties, luxury cars, expensive watches and deluxe boats worth more than $30m have been frozen by the courts in South Australia alone.

An Ironside test case will be taken to the Supreme Court this year to test the validity of evidence gathered from the AN0M app.

The case, involving three men on firearms charges, will be the first in the country to put the warrants used to get the messages under the microscope.

It is expected the case will end up before the High Court regardless of the result of the pre-trial hearing.

Originally published as Court documents reveal Operation Ironside accused Joshua Richter sold his Craigmore house for one dollar