AN0M drug kingpin jailed in Dutch drug cartel takedown

A cartel linked to a top Australian law enforcer and tonnes of cocaine and ecstasy has been smashed for a second time.

Exclusive: One of the world’s most powerful synthetic drug syndicates behind multiple tonnes of cocaine trafficked to Australia has been smashed – again.

The first time the Netherlands-based cartel was shut down was 16 years ago in a huge case that brought down one of Australia’s highest ever ranked law enforcers Mark Standen.

Now the 62-year-old head of the syndicate has been sentenced to eight years jail overnight Thursday after having set up a new smuggling line of cocaine from South America to Hamburg in Germany.

From there the drugs were expected to be moved across Europe and possibly to Australia where the group had established strong organised crime connections.

FBI’s encrypted phone platform ANOM was promoted by criminal groups worldwide. These criminals sold more than 12,000 ANOM devices and services to more than 300 criminal syndicates operating in more than 100 countries.

According to the Dutch Public Prosecution Service, the man who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was caught after he and his cohorts used the ANOM encrypted phone messaging service to communicate not realising it was being monitored by the FBI and Australian Federal Police.

His messages were being read by the FBI in real time from 2018 to 2021 and passed to Dutch authorities to determine when to make their move.

Surveillance photos from the AFP presented in court case against former NSW Crime Commissioner assistant director Mark Standen.

It was the second time the drug kingpin plotter was arrested, charged and jailed.

The first time he was jailed was for overseeing tonnes of shipments of narcotics to Australia in flower pots, mechanical goods and basmati rice in a plot which eventually snared the corrupt NSW Crime Commission assistant director Mark Standen.

At the time of his 2008 arrest for conspiring to import $120 million of drug precursors for the Breda Cartel, Standen was the biggest scalp in Australian law enforcement history to ever be busted.

Standen has served 16 years jail and is set to be released from jail in June.

His former boss was also jailed for the plot but was released several years ago before he apparently turned back to crime.

Former assistant director of the NSW Crime Commission Mark Standen, when he was led into his committal hearing at Central Local Court in Sydney.

According to the Zwolle courts, for his latest plot he smuggled cocaine in shipments of bananas from Colombia and Ecuador to the port of Hamburg.

Like what he did in Australia, he made several test runs in 2020 in 10kg and 30kg batches before the expected big one.

The gang members shared photos with each other of the cocaine that was packed among the fruit but the smuggling was paused during Covid.

His son was also involved in the cartel but was already serving time for smuggling ecstasy to Belgium but on Thursday also had his jail time extended by three years and eight months.

The ANOM trap has already seen hundreds of criminals from around the world caught for drug smuggling, gun trafficking and 20 plots to murder rivals that the AFP alone was forced to act on.

The FBI-led encrypted phone platform ANOM was promoted by criminal groups worldwide. These criminals sold more than 12,000 devices and services to more than 300 criminal syndicates operating in more than 100 countries. In Australia the Outlaw Motorcyle Gangs (OMCGs) were inadvertantly promoting and distributing the FBI created app.

Originally published as AN0M drug kingpin jailed in Dutch drug cartel takedown