Grazier 'headed drug cartel'

[postman]

ONE of Australia's largest drug syndicates, suspected of producing tonnes of high-grade marijuana every year, has been smashed, with arrests and raids across north Queensland last night.

 

The syndicate, allegedly run by Queensland grazier Alexander Malcolm Lane, is suspected of operating for more than a decade, with plantations across Cape York and around Cairns.

A three-year joint police and Australian Crime Commission taskforce - codenamed Charlie-Thatch - has traced the syndicate to Europe and across Australia.

 

At least 10 properties are suspected to have been used as rotating sites for the sophisticated plantations, growing highly potent hybrid strands of "skunk" marijuana.

 

The seeds for the crops - each producing between half a tonne and a tonne of marijuana - were allegedly bought in Amsterdam and smuggled back into the country.

 

The mature plants are alleged to have been harvested and packaged at the remote plantations and then flown out by mustering helicopters.

 

The marijuana was then transported down a network of inland roads and formed the major supply for the Sydney and Melbourne markets.

Police sources last night described the syndicate as the biggest marijuana operation uncovered in Australia for several decades.

 

"This is a huge bust, probably the biggest ever in Queensland," a source said. "It is suspected that the plantation sites were being changed with every crop to avoid detection."

 

Several people have been arrested in recent days, with a further four men - alleged to be hired hands on one plantation raided in April last year - informing police about the extent of the syndicate.

 

The plantation was found on the 302ha Bolwarra station, 70km southwest of Cairns - owned by the grazier alleged to be one of two bosses of the drug syndicate.

 

Police say the marijuana crop at the station covered more than two acres and included 3363 plants - some 2m high.

 

The estimated street value of the crop, which was subsequently destroyed, was between $3 million and $3.9 million.

 

The men arrested on that plantation, all of Serbian extraction, have not been charged since their arrest and are now understood to be in a police witness protection program.

 

Millions of dollars in properties and assets have already been seized, and banks accounts of the alleged syndicate's members frozen.

 

At the time of publication, tactical response police teams and ACC agents were raiding homes and properties across north Queensland.

 

It is not known how many people were targeted, but police predicted scores of arrests.

 

In an application in the Brisbane District Court earlier this month, under the proceeds-of-crime legislation, police moved to freeze Mr Lane's assets. Documents filed as part of the application allege 58-year-old Mr Lane, a well-known breeder of hereford and brahman cattle, was a boss of the syndicate.

 

Police sources said one other man, whose identity has not been revealed, is a co-head of the operation.

 

Mr Lane, a married father of two adult sons, has been interrogated at secret ACC hearings over the past month.

 

Under the ACC's special coercive powers, Mr Lane could face five years imprisonment and/or heavy fines if he refuses to co-operate.

 

Several other men were also put before the ACC over the weekend.

 

According to police documents, Mr Lane was questioned during an ACC examination on May 12 about his involvement "in the organisation of five cannabis plantations at Bolwarra Station" - the site of the crop discovered in a raid in April last year. The station is listed for sale for $3.1 million.

 

The ACC also questioned Mr Lane about the distribution of more than "one thousand pounds" of marijuana at Bolwarra Station in 2003, two years before the police bust.

 

During that year, documents show Mr Lane disclosed an income of "nil" on his tax return.

 

Mr Lane was also questioned about allegedly giving cash to a Serbian to buy marijuana seeds overseas in 2003.

 

In affidavits sworn by Queensland police, and obtained by The Australian, several of the informants claim Mr Lane paid for them to take several trips to Amsterdam to buy seeds. According to police, the informants claimed they received up to $30,000 to travel to Holland to buy the seeds.

 

The seeds were then allegedly smuggled into Australia down the pants of the mules.

 

The informants claimed some of the plantation workers were paid a fortnightly wage of $3000, with others reaping up to $110,000 from one crop.

 

Many of them were allegedly recruited in NSW by a Serbian man, now believed to be in Europe, targeting "people who need the money".

 

Mr Lane, who could not be contacted for comment last night, was arrested earlier this month over an alleged $250 drug deal in Cairns.

 

It was alleged Mr Lane had supplied another man with 1700 pseudoephedrine-based tablets, while under surveillance for his alleged involvement in the marijuana syndicate.

 

He appeared briefly in Cairns Magistrates Court charged with supply of pseudoephedrine and was bailed to re-appear next month.

 

Police would not comment on the raids last night.

 

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19312479-1248,00.html

[postman]

A BURIED cache of gold bars is among millions of dollars seized by police after an intensive operation to destroy a massive drug-farming organisation which has plagued Queensland for 12 years.

 

 

The organisation – including a banana farmer, cattle grazier, businessmen and property owners – reaped millions from producing cannabis in north Queensland since 1995.

 

Police discovered cannabis crops in virtually inaccessible areas around Innisfail, Townsville, Charters Towers and the Atherton Tablelands.

 

It is believed they were led to the buried cache of gold by a helicopter pilot, allegedly a member of the powerful drug-trafficking organisation.

 

Up to 10kg of gold bars and several hundred thousand dollars in cash had been buried under rocks near Chillagoe, west of Mareeba.

 

During the investigation, known as Operation Charlie-Thatch, police seized helicopters, properties, cars, boats, cash, and jewellery worth at least $5 million.

 

It is understood a member of the drug organisation who tried to launder the gold through the Australian Mint has been questioned by detectives.

 

Federal prosecutors used proceeds of crime laws to seize more than 300ha of prime land in the Atherton Tableland belonging to the man.

 

Property searches show that he had bought the land for $520,000 two years ago.

 

The massive drug operation involved helicopter pilots flying in "crop sitters" to guard the growing cannabis plants.

 

Police said the plants were of a particular variety smuggled from Amsterdam which grew rapidly and produced a high-potency drug.

 

Once the crops had been harvested and dried, the chopper pilots ferried the cannabis to distribution points to be sold around Queensland.

 

Crop sitters who tended and guarded the plantations were recruited from local areas.

 

 

Some of the crop sitters were allegedly Eastern European nationals but police would not confirm whether they had been brought to Australia especially for that role.

 

It is understood the organisation grew only a few, high-quality crops each year.

 

Investigators are trawling through 12 years of financial records of suspects and their associates to discover where they had laundered the drug money, police sources said.

 

It is understood some of the money was used to place large bets, buy cattle properties and for improvements to existing properties.

 

Operation Charlie-Thatch police stepped up their raids over recent months. More than 200 plants about 2m tall were found on a property at Torrens Creek, west of Charters Towers, this month.

 

Police estimated the street value of that crop alone to be worth a minimum of $500,000.

 

Operation Charlie-Thatch involved the Queensland police Far Northern Region Drug squad, the State Drug Investigative Unit and the Australian Crime Commission.

 

The crime commission has held secret hearings in Cairns for the past two weeks.

 

Several arrests have been made and further charges are expected to be laid in the continuing investigation.

 

 

http://www.couriermail.news.com.au/story/0...328-952,00.html

[Frazz]

Mr Lane, who could not be contacted for comment last night, was arrested earlier this month over an alleged $250 drug deal in Cairns. He appeared briefly in Cairns Magistrates Court charged with supply of pseudoephedrine and was bailed to re-appear next month.

 

 

Bail?? they give these jokers bail ....hope they get outta the country fast and leave the fuckwitted pigs scratching thier arse

 

 

[maxgrow]

Bail?? they give these jokers bail ....hope they get outta the country fast and leave the fuckwitted pigs scratching thier arse

 

Ha ha - spot on dude

[WantDaChronic]

fuck these guys werent kidding around hey

 

cant believe they bailed him, but then again he has been under their radar for 3 years already so another month wont hurt

[stalemate]

2 Bad There's None Of That Good S**T Left,

That S**T Must Have Been All Over QLD!,

Foe Tha Last Dam Decade !!

 

Pigs & there dam yr's of investigation!

F**K All Yall Pigs!

 

(Free Da Weed Yall !!)

Edited May 31, 2006 by stalemate

[mull]

Hmmm

 

'Essentially' there's only one crime; approving of greed.

 

Don't remember much about economics, except the supply and demand equation. Where theres a demand, it will always be supplied.

 

So if there is a large demand for something prohibited, it will get supplied and the greedy, can, supply most of it.

 

Another way is to grow your own

 

Of course, if cannabis wasn't illegal then this would have just been baled up for the markets and none of this nonsense could have occured!

 

 

some more pics..

[dsyfer]

Now that's what I call a bag of buds

[medMUser]

 

That really sucks. Big Bro at its 'best'. Oh well...

[medMUser]

200 hundred plants woth 500,000 G's? What were they growing? Thc must a been 90%!

 

Coppers always exagerate for big headlines like they are heros or something. Meth all over but they get the grass!

 

Like the corporate theft in US-but those cops nailed Martha Stewart! It so dumb. People used to mak a living from hemp. Ole G Washington used to grow hemp. Most historical documents were written on Hemp paper. Its a strange world...