A criminal lawyer has offered free advice to 50,000 people on the receiving end of a text message telling them they had been linked to alleged drug runners.
NSW authorities revealed on Thursday they had laid several charges and seized eight phones and dozens of phone numbers as part of a probe into “dial a dealer” networks in Sydney.
All 26 numbers were disabled, but before that, about 50,000 “identified contacts” were sent an early morning message telling them their number was linked to an alleged drug-running phone.
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The message read: “The NSW Police Force: Strike Force Wessex has identified this number engaging with an organised crime drug supply ‘dial-a-dealer’ phone. If this continues, you may be subject to further investigation. Cease all contact now.”
Sydney criminal lawyer and TikTok star Jahan Kalantar said he was bombarded with messages from people wanting to know if the warning was real or a prank.
Like the police, Kalantar told his 385,000 followers the early morning text was “100 per cent” legitimate.
“It is not something that has been made up. The police force themselves have confirmed it,” he said.
His guidance for anyone who received the ping was to be “wary”.
“Does this mean that you are going to be arrested immediately, someone’s going to swoop down? Not necessarily but it does mean that your phone was in some way shape or form connected to the larger network,” he said.
“And so if you receive this message I think you would be very, very wise to delete those people from your phone that may be part of this because it is highly likely that your phone is in some way shape or form compromised.”
Strike Force Wessex was launched almost 12 months ago to target alleged criminal groups using hard-to-trace phone networks in their illicit drug operations.
Investigators first targeted mobile phone retailers supplying fraudulent SIM cards before closing in on the alleged drug dealers.
In December, a 71-year-old woman was charged after detectives found fraudulent subscribed SIM cards and $60,000 cash at a mobile store in Bankstown.
A 53-year-old man was charged in January after police found SIM cards and about $58,000 cash at a Bass Hill convenience store.
Police made multiple arrests in February while identifying and recovering some of the suspected drug-runner phones from alleged dealers and shutting numbers down.
‘Phase one was just the beginning.’
Police allege some of the phone numbers – who were known to their contacts only by names such as ‘Dior, ‘Tommy’ and ‘Ricky’ – were used for up to 10 years.
“We’ve been able to shut down these phones that were running up to millions of dollars’ worth of drugs per week – anything from cannabis to cocaine to ice,” Detective Superintendent Grant Taylor said.
“But phase one was just the beginning. Now we’ve disrupted the dealers’ direct line to their customers, we can turn our attention to those at the top – the criminal syndicate controlling these phones and we’ll be coming after them next.”
– With AAP
