THE $500M DRUG GANG

VICTORIAN truckies and bikies were the major buyers of drugs from an
Australian gang running the world's biggest-known amphetamine operation.

The gang churned out "speed" worth almost $500million from hi-tech
laboratories in Queensland and Victoria.

Most of the chemicals and equipment used to make enormous batches of pure
amphetamine were smuggled in from China.

Detectives busted the syndicate just days before members were due to ditch
their life of crime and invest the massive proceeds in legitimate businesses.

They had elaborate money laundering schemes in train and some had
well-advanced plans to set up a merchant bank.

Syndicate leader and expert amphetamine "cook" Allan Barrow intended
fleeing to China, where he had invested in expensive residential property
and planned to set up a glass factory in Shanghai.

Barrow, 45, was yesterday jailed for 20 years after the Queensland Supreme
Court in Brisbane was told he had perfected the art of producing
amphetamine powder.

Investigators who raided the gang's laboratory in the inner Brisbane suburb
of Newstead were stunned to discover 178kg of pure amphetamine - with a
street value of $284million - laid out on long tables.

Interpol and Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence records seen by the
Herald Sun reveal the haul was the world's second-biggest, behind 280kg
seized at the port of Ramsgate in England on July 7, 1995.

But records kept by Barrow and his Victorian partner-in-crime, Donald
Vinall, reveal a further 127kg was made and sold from gang labs in 1994-95,
making their operation the biggest detected.

The snowy-white powder produced by Barrow - who learned the craft after
being asked for help by the operator of a Melbourne drugs lab - was the
most highly prized type of amphetamine.

Genuine amphetamine is so hard to make that most speed sold on the street
is actually methamphetamine, a relative of the real thing.

Even most of the genuine amphetamine sold is amphetamine sulphate.

Amphetamine phosphate is prized by users because it is highly soluble in
water - making it much easier to prepare for injection than inferior and
more common forms of amphetamine.

Crown prosecutor Peter Ridgeway told the Queensland court amphetamine in
Australia was usually cut down to about 5 per cent pure for sale at street
level at $80 a gram, giving the 305kg of pure amphetamine produced by
Barrow and Vinall a potential street value of $488million.

"That is the magnitude of this operation," Mr Ridgeway said.

"This is the largest amount of amphetamine on record to the knowledge of
any worldwide law enforcement agency."

The arrests of various gang members, including Barrow and Vinall, 40, were
engineered by a joint task force code-named Operation Chinook. This
comprised officers from the Victorian and Queensland police forces and the
Melbourne and Brisbane offices of the National Crime Authority.

Barrow's first amphetamine-making experience was in Victoria, in
partnership with former truck driver Garry David Maguire at Maguire's home
in Woodstock Rd, Wallan East.

The Wallan East lab equipment was moved to Queensland in mid-1994 after
Maguire became worried the lab was about to be discovered.

Task force investigators were able to establish the gang had organised
numerous distributors in Melbourne, particularly within motorcycle gangs
and the trucking industry.

Vinall, who was born in Yallourn and worked in the transport industry for
15 years, told the task force that Melbourne Hells Angels gang member Sonny
Otene was a major buyer, and truckies from Victoria and Queensland were the
other big customers.

"Nine out of 10 drivers I know take drugs," Vinall said in a statement to
the NCA.

Det-Insp. Ross Barnett, the chief investigator in the Brisbane NCA office
said during the investigation that Otene bought bulk pure amphetamine on
behalf of motorcycle gangs.

"Amphetamine is the favored drug of outlaw motorcycle gangs, both for
personal use and more importantly, to cut and on-sell to make money," said
Det-Insp. Barnett, who is now with the Queensland Crimes Commission.

"Vinall and Maguire had made a business arrangement to provide pure
amphetamine to Otene, who had a ready market through the Hells Angels. The
only pressure the Angels was putting on them was they wanted to have a
continuous supply."

The NCA's Melbourne operations manager, Robert McAllan, said much of the
amphetamine produced by the gang at its two Queensland labs ended up in
Victoria.

"The bikies were taking a fair slice of the production and Maguire and
Vinall both had extensive contacts in the Victorian trucking industry," he
said.

Victorian task force members raided Otene's luxury home in Yan Yean Rd,
Yarrambat, on October 17, 1994, and seized 15kg of pure amphetamine powder
with a street value of $24 million.

Otene, 47, was found guilty at trial in the Victorian County Court last
year to one charge of possessing and two of trafficking amphetamines. He
was jailed for nine years, with a minimum of seven.

Vinall, of Raby Bay, Queensland, pleaded guilty to trafficking amphetamines
and on September 13, 1995, was sentenced to 12 years' jail with a
recommendation of parole after five years because he agreed to give
evidence against other gang members.

Maguire, 60, of Wallan Rd, Whittlesea, has pleaded guilty to one count each
of possessing and trafficking amphetamines. He is due to be sentenced in
the County Court on June 29.

A judge will sentence Maguire only in respect of the charges to which he
has pleaded guilty.

Barrow, of Boyd St, Bowen Hills, Brisbane, pleaded guilty to charges
arising out of an amphetamine lab at Doggett St, in the inner Brisbane
suburb of Newstead, and not guilty to charges in relation to another lab at
Dayboro on Brisbane's north-western outskirts.

A Queensland Supreme Court jury this week found Barrow guilty of producing
amphetamines at both labs in 1994-95 and Justice John Helman yesterday
sentenced him to 20 years for each of three charges and 15 years on the
fourth charge.

Justice Helman ordered the sentences be served at the same time.

Checked-by: Richard Lake