Court documents obtained by the ABC detail the inner workings of an alleged Northern Territory drug syndicate and the steps taken by police to arrest those accused of the commercial supply of cannabis in the Barkly region.
Ronald Peace, 36, was arrested alongside eight others in the outback town of Tennant Creek last June after a three-and-a-half month NT Police investigation codenamed Operation AMYL.
Police allege the group supplied more than 21 kilograms of cannabis to the Barkly region over 12 months and collected more than half a million dollars in proceeds from their activities.
Peace was handed a suspended sentence earlier this year, while his co-accused's matters either remain before the local court or have been committed to the NT Supreme Court due to their more serious nature.
The court documents show police intercepted phone communication and surveilled several people they allege were part of a syndicate over several months, listening into hundreds of calls relating to the supply of cannabis.
Police allege one of the group members contacted Peace in June 2022 to drive him to the train station south of Tennant Creek to pick up a commercial quantity of cannabis from a supplier.
Peace drove his Subaru Impreza to the location, where "an older looking fellow" met with his co-accused and handed him a Coles freezer bag filled with almost a kilogram of the drug.
Police pulled over the vehicle on the Stuart Highway south of Tennant Creek before finding the cannabis-filled freezer bag, along with $3,950 in cash.
Peace was arrested at the scene.
Peace agreed to participate in a formal recorded interview with police the next day, but only made "limited partial admissions", according to the documents.
When Peace was asked if he had spoken to the supplier, who he referred to as "the dude", during the handover, he said: "Nah, like I said I just looked at him from the corner of my eye and looked away".
Police search homes
A subsequent search of other premises related to the alleged syndicate uncovered a range of drug paraphernalia, as well as quantities of methamphetamine and cannabis.
Further searches were conducted at the homes of two other alleged syndicate members, with "significant" discoveries, allegedly including cannabis, cash, ledgers, and equipment and material for packaging drugs were made, the documents state.
Peace remains under a home detention order until July 2023.
At the time of the arrests, NT Police said the operation would have significant impact on the supply of drugs across the Barkly region, which is surrounded by dozens of surrounding Aboriginal communities.
"Police continue to have a zero tolerance to organised crime anywhere in the Northern Territory," Detective Sergeant Marek Hutchinson-Goncz said at the time.
"We will continue to actively pursue those who choose to profit off of vulnerable members in our communities."
