A NEWCASTLE man caught up in the global ANOM app sting has pleaded guilty to his role in a plot to import 230 kilograms of methamphetamine into Australia from South Korea.
Brent McLaughlin, 39, was arrested in May, 2021, after two shipments of helical gear drives were examined at the Australian Border Force facility in Sydney and discovered to contain more than $143 million worth of ice.
The first shipment contained 140 kilograms of methamphetamine, while the second contained 90 kilograms and in both shipments the drug was concealed within the helical gear drives.
"This is a clever concealment, with large quantities of dangerous drugs hidden behind a thick layer of steel," Australian Border Force Superintendent Graeme Campbell said at the time of the massive seizure.
The discovery came a month after the Australian Federal Police, NSW Police Drug and Firearms Squad and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission launched a joint investigation into an Australian company importing the drives.
McLaughlin was arrested on May 22, 2021 and didn't realise it at the time but he had been one of the hundreds of organised crime figures caught up in the global ANOM app sting.
The ANOM app was a secure messaging platform set up by authorities as part of a joint venture between the FBI in the United States, the Australian Federal Police and other law enforcement agencies targeting criminal organisations around the world.
The device containing the app was covertly distributed to alleged underworld figures, who began using it to communicate with each other.
But what they didn't know was that every message was being intercepted by law enforcement officials, who spent three years gathering evidence against hundreds of alleged criminals before revealing the sting to the world in June, 2021.
Police made more than 1000 arrests globally, including 224 in Australia, under the banner Operation Ironside.
McLaughlin was one of more than 60 ANOM defendants, once part of a class-action style lawsuit challenging the legality of the ANOM encrypted app, that were mentioned during a callover in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court last week.
While lawyers for the vast majority of defendants are continuing to negotiate with prosecutors, McLaughlin pleaded guilty to importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug, which carries a maximum of life imprisonment.
Another charge relating to dealing with the proceeds of crime of more than $100,000 will be taken into account when he is ultimately sentenced in Downing Centre District Court.
According to court documents, McLaughlin and five other people - including one known only by his ANOM username - conspired to import the methamphetamine between April, 2020 and May 2021.
He will next appear in court on November 24.
As well as McLaughlin there are a number of other alleged organised crime figures, drug importers or dealers with links to the Hunter who were arrested as part of Operation Ironside.
Former Newcastle man Edward Jay Ryan, 33, who was living at Bobin, north of Taree, at the time of his arrest in April, 2022, is accused of directing the activities of a criminal group that allegedly includes Hunter trio Peter Maddison, Lindsay Giles and Janey Zycki.
Police have said the group were involved in the cultivation and supply of large quantities of cannabis and supply of cocaine and MDMA and had links to high-ranking overseas members of the Comanchero Outlaw Motorcycle Gang.
The 33-year-old is charged with knowingly deal with the proceeds of crime, knowingly direct the activities of a criminal group, three counts of supplying a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug and importing a marketable quantity of a prohibited drug.
Mr Ryan has not entered pleas and was granted NSW Supreme Court bail in April on the basis that he faced a lengthy delay while the landmark hearing determined the validity of the encrypted communication platform at the heart of the international sting.
In granting him strict bail, Justice Peter Garling said if the ANOM encrypted app was found to have unlawfully intercepted messages then the case against Mr Ryan would be "significantly weakened".
As well as Mr Ryan, Mr Maddison and Mr Giles recently had their charges finalised and for each they include participating in a criminal group, knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime and two counts of supplying a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug.
Ms Zycki pleaded guilty to supplying a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug and earlier this month was jailed for a maximum of four-and-a-half years.
Meanwhile, Mende Trajkoski, Nikolao Misa and Gjelosh Nikollaj, three members of an alleged transnational organised crime syndicate who were arrested over a $900 million cocaine importation plot, also had their matters mentioned in court last week.
Two of the three men were arrested near a Lake Macquarie storage facility in June, 2021.
IN THE NEWS:
Helicopter search: cockpit video found in recovered wreckage
The agents selling Newcastle's most expensive real estate
Safe Work weighs in over Kurri gas plant 'carcinogen' allegations
Park and the plaques: Rotary Club's anger at backflip
