QLD: Ironside Northern-Destiny (case study)

A serious organised criminal group allegedly manufacturing and trafficking MDMA in clandestine labs around Brisbane has been dismantled with intelligence from the Australian Federal Police’s Operation Ironside.

Six people have been arrested including a patched member of the Comancheros as part of Operation Ironside Northern - Destiny, a joint investigation by the Australian Federal Police and Queensland Police.

The senior Comanchero, a 34-year-old man from Burbank, on Brisbane’s southside, was arrested on Monday (7 June 2021) as police executed a series of coordinated search warrants across the city. He was charged with one count of produce dangerous drugs with criminal aggravation organised crime and one count of possess anything for use in the commission of a crime. He faced Brisbane Magistrates Court on Tuesday 8 June.

An associate of the 34-year-old man was also arrested at Moorooka, south of Brisbane, and was charged with six offences including produce dangerous drugs with criminal aggravation organised crime and possess dangerous drugs (cannabis). He faced Brisbane Magistrates Court on Tuesday 8 June.

Two other men, aged 34 and 28, were arrested at a property in Ipswich, which police will allege contained a clandestine drug lab. They were both charged with three offences including produce dangerous drugs with criminal aggravation organised crime.

The arrests this week follow a string of QPS search warrants executed on 8 May 2021 at premises in Ipswich, North Stradbroke Island and Cleveland.

During a search of a Murphy Street, Ipswich, address, investigators located a commercial pill press and illicit laboratory equipment suspected of being used to produce MDMA. Approximately 60 pills suspected to be MDMA were also located at the address.

Specialist officers from QPS Illicit Laboratory Investigation Team (ILIT) and Ipswich District attended the location to remove the items.

Three people were arrested at the scene and charged with drug offences.

A 38-year-old St George man and 28-year-old Ipswich woman were charged with one count each of possession of a relevant thing and possession of a dangerous drug.

A 34-year-old Dunwich man was charged with possession of a relevant thing.

All appeared in Ipswich Magistrates Court on June 8.