Eight men arrested, charged as part of Australian Federal Police Operation Ironside

Shocking pictures reveal how eight alleged ‘trusted insiders’ of notorious organised crime groups were living right before police barged in.

Eight alleged “trusted insiders” of notorious crime groups have been taken off the streets of Sydney as part of a three-year police operation.

Officers from the Australian Federal Police, NSW Police Force and Australian Border Force announced the first wave of results on Friday morning from the Operation Ironside Phase II, revealing the eight alleged crooks had been arrested and charged.

Australian Federal Police Detective Superintendent Matthew Ciantar said 20 search warrants were executed across the Sydney metropolitan area in the past week, and police allegedly seized more than 3kg of cocaine, $1m in cash, guns, ammunition and encrypted devices.

“These were people who were (allegedly) trusted insiders in positions of trust across a number of different organisations, and we’re making sure we take them out of the supply chain,” he told reporters on Friday morning.

Police allegedly found cocaine on a toilet seat when they executed a search warrant. Picture: AFP

Police released images of the operation, showing what officers encountered when they executed the search warrants.

One shocking image showed cocaine scattered across a toilet seat, while other images showed wads of cash in a clothes draw and boxes of guns and ammunition.

More than 4000 members from the AFP and state and territory police have been involved in the execution of hundreds of warrants since June 7 of this year under Operation Ironside, which covertly started three years ago.

Boxes of ammunition and weapons were seized when officers executed 20 search warrants across the Sydney metropolitan area this week. Picture: AFP

It’s led to the arrest of 224 alleged offenders on 526 charges in every mainland Australian state.

A total of 3.7 tonnes of drugs, 104 weapons, $44,934,457m in cash and assets expected to run into the millions of dollars have been seized under the operation.

NSW Police Detective Chief Superintendent Darren Bennett said their aim was to bring down organised crime groups.

“The people of NSW should be very pleased that over the Christmas and new year break there’s another lot of (alleged) organised criminals in custody, more drugs off the street, more cash taken and more firearms taken,” he said.

“You should be safe in the knowledge that the police involved in these operations will not be taking a break over the coming days and they’ll continue to focus on organised crime.”

The eight men are expected to face court.

Wads of cash were lined up in a clothes draw. Picture: AFP

Originally published as Eight men arrested, charged as part of Australian Federal Police Operation Ironside