A bail application was abandoned when it was discovered an alleged drug “boss” was in Australia illegally.
Speaking with the help from a Mandarin interpreter, Yian Soon Phang, 32, who had been living transiently in Melbourne, started a bail application in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court, but it became obvious that he would likely be taken into custody in immigrant detention if his bail application was successful.
He is charged with trafficking a large commercial quantity of methamphetamines, two counts of trafficking a commercial quantity of methamphetamines, trafficking a large commercial quantity of GHB, attempting to traffic a commercial quantity of pseudoephedrine, trafficking pseudoephedrine, trafficking heroin and trafficking MDMA.
He is also charged with three counts of committing an indictable offence while on bail, dealing with the proceeds of crime, possessing methamphetamine and burglary.
Shepparton crime investigation unit Detective Senior Constable Anthony De Cicco told the court Mr Phang and two others were identified as what he described as “the main offenders” during a major drug investigation into a large-scale drug trafficking syndicate in the Shepparton area in September 2022.
Surveillance on this police operation, dubbed Operation Lemon, started in June 2023.
A previous police telephone intercept of Mr Phang’s phone for a different drug investigation started in October 2022.
Det Sen Constable De Cicco said transcripts of calls and texts between October 2022 and October 2023 revealed “sustained drug trafficking” of methamphetamines and GHB by Mr Phang.
Police allege that during this time, Mr Phang trafficked 1.8kg methamphetamines, 40.9kg of 1-4 butanediol which is also known as GHB, 154 grams of heroin, 10.1kg of pseudoephedrine and 1g of ecstasy.
Det Sen Constable De Cicco said Mr Phang and two others stole items from storage units in South Melbourne on August 25, 2023.
When Mr Phang was arrested in a hotel room at Cobram on October 7, 2023, police found six zip-lock bags containing methamphetamines, $650 cash, a card skimming device and two fake Victorian driver’s licences and two fake NSW ones with Phang’s photo but false names.
Det Sen Constable De Cicco told the court police had intercepted “hundreds of calls and thousands of texts” where Phang “put himself as the boss of a drug syndicate in Greater Shepparton and Melbourne and he was offering to sell drugs”.
Among those was a call to a woman to try to find a distributor of methamphetamines to sell 84g at a profit of $15,000 on October 24, 2022, Det Sen Constable De Cicco said.
The officer referred to Mr Phang as someone who had “established himself as a significant drug trafficker in Victoria” and who had “openly referred to himself as the boss”.
He also said Mr Phang had a wife and child in Shepparton, but was not present at the family home during the investigation.
Det Senior Constable De Cicco also told the court of an issue facing the police surveillance into Mr Phang’s matter.
He said there was an investigation into fraudulent logs by Victoria Police state surveillance members that were being investigated by authorities, including one in this investigation.
This affects the physical surveillance of one of Mr Phang’s co-accused in May 2023.
Det Sen Constable De Cicco told the court of his concerns for Mr Phang being granted bail, but it in the end the magistrate did not need to consider them after the officer dropped a bombshell that Mr Phang was unlawfully in Australia.
“At the time of the investigation he had a bridging visa, but that is now not the case,” Det Sen Constable De Cicco said.
It was news to Mr Phang’s defence counsel, who had only just found out about the status of his client’s visa from the prosecution before he walked into court for the case.
After a quick discussion with his client, the defence withdrew the bail application because his client was likely to be taken into immigration detention if he was released.
Mr Phang remains in custody as he awaits his next court appearance on this matter.