Author Topic: Nsw cooking up a storm  (Read 3342 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Snowman78

  • Larvae
  • *
  • Posts: 28
Nsw cooking up a storm
« on: January 23, 2019, 07:46:04 AM »
Sydney drug syndicate: cooking ‘sludge’ in a clan meth lab
Skip to sections navigationSkip to contentSkip to footer
SubscribeLog In
OPENMENU
The Sydney Morning Herald
0 items in Shortlist



NATIONALNSWCRIME
Sydney drug syndicate: cooking ‘sludge’ in a clan meth lab
You have 2 free articles remaining

Enjoy unlimited access from only $3.50 a week.

FIND OUT MORE
Already subscribed? Log in
By Lucy Cormack & Angela Thompson
23 January 2019 — 12:00am
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Whatsapp
Send via Email
Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text size
The last time Stephen Gavanas was behind bars, his brother’s body was found face down, with ankles bound, in the mangroves of the Parramatta River.

It was 2015 and Gavanas, then 44, was still serving time in a Victorian jail cell for a drug trafficking conviction he received alongside Mohammad Khodr and Horty Mokbel, the brother of notorious Melbourne underworld figure Tony Mokbel.

Michael Gavanas, 50, (left, pictured with his father) was found with his ankles tied and face down in the Parramatta River at Melrose Park on July 18, 2015.
Michael Gavanas, 50, (left, pictured with his father) was found with his ankles tied and face down in the Parramatta River at Melrose Park on July 18, 2015.

He was out by the end of 2016 but his freedom was short-lived. The 48-year-old was back in custody by April last year over his role in a Sydney drug syndicate which leased a 145-year-old heritage-listed home in Shellharbour for use as a meth lab.

The clandestine lab was set up in the garage of the historic “Toongla” property in Tullimbar, a 19th-century homestead set on 45 acres which was once home to one of the region’s early magistrates.

Gavanas was one of nine people arrested and charged over the clan lab, which was dismantled in 2017 when police responded to a pressure valve sounding and a cloud of vapour erupting from the detached garage on the property.

Gavanas assisted as a cook for the operation and has admitted to visiting the manufacturing site at least three times. He has been in custody since his arrest in April last year.

The 145-year-old Georgian revival-style home, ‘Toongla’, which was allegedly used as a clan lab.
The 145-year-old Georgian revival-style home, ‘Toongla’, which was allegedly used as a clan lab.CREDIT:ADAM MCLEAN

In December, he pleaded guilty to manufacturing an indictable quantity of methylamphetamine at the property and will return to Wollongong District Court next week when a sentence date will be set.

Police allege the syndicate used the garage as a clan lab to manufacture large commercial quantities of methylamphetamine.

The set-up included a large stainless-steel condenser, which was found fixed to a beer keg that had been converted into a reaction vessel.

In 2017, investigators from Strike Force Kingarth allegedly seized 10 separate quantities of methylamphetamine from the property, totaling 1160.69 grams - more than half of which was allegedly inside a Pyrex dish - being removed by a cook from the kitchen’s microwave when police arrived.

In 1982 the ‘Toongla’ house and gardens were classified by the National Trust. Police allege it has since been leased by a Sydney drug syndicate.
In 1982 the ‘Toongla’ house and gardens were classified by the National Trust. Police allege it has since been leased by a Sydney drug syndicate.CREDIT:ADAM MCCLEAN

By the time a plume of smoke was billowing from the property’s garage on August 2017, the drug syndicate had been under police surveillance since at least July 12 the same year.

In secretly recorded conversations tendered to the court, Gavanas was heard discussing the disposal of “sludge”, the cooking process and the chemistry involved in getting methamphetamine in oil form to separate from the reaction mixture.

“Get that stuff that’s in the wok ... I’ll PH it all at the same time, bring it back to a powder,” he said in one discussion, recorded on August 4, 2017.

"If it comes back then we just put a little bit of distilled in, reset it, let it come to a skin, leave it in the wok. What do you reckon?”

Gavanas’ experience with the manufacture of the drug ice dates back to at least 2010, when he, Mokbel and Khodr were sentenced in the Victorian Supreme Court for storing chemicals and equipment used in the commercial production of ice.

Gavanas’ brother Michael, a father of three, was also known to have links with the infamous Mokbel crime family at the time of his death in 2015.

He had a criminal history dating back to 1983, with offences including stealing, possessing prohibited drugs, and supplying and trafficking prohibited drugs.

A coronial inquest in 2016 found the 50-year-old died from a methamphetamine overdose, but how he ended up dumped in a river, with elastic binds around his ankles, could not be explained.

His death remains the subject of police investigations.

Upon his release from jail in Victoria, Gavanas told police he would not give a statement about his brother’s death, but said he believed Michael drank from a glass of clear liquid thinking it was water when it was actually liquid methamphetamine.

Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Whatsapp
Send via Email
License this article
CRIME
COURTS
Lucy Cormack
Lucy Cormack
Twitter
Google+
Lucy Cormack is a crime reporter with The Sydney Morning Herald.

MOST VIEWED IN NATIONAL
Loading


The Sydney Morning Herald
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
RSS
OUR SITES
CLASSIFIEDS
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
PRODUCTS & SERVICES
Copyright © 2019

Feedback
SUBSCRIBE
  ;)