Drug runner blitz

Two men from Guildford were charged as part of the police investigation.
TWO men from Guildford are facing serious drugs charges after Criminal Group Squad detectives shut down 26 alleged drug runner phone numbers connected to more than 50,000 potential customers.
Strike Force Wessex was established last April to investigate alleged criminal groups involved in drug supply using drug run or ‘dial-a-dealer’ phones across Sydney.
The investigation has involved a number of operational phases, which began with identifying the mobile phone retailers allegedly supplying fraudulent SIM cards – leading to the charging of two store operators.
Detectives then worked to identify and recover some of the drug run phones from a number of alleged dealers, including the arrest of the two men, aged 50 and 19, at Guildford last month, when police allegedly located multiple mobile phones, approximately $3,700 in cash, a baton and two gel blasters.
Eight phones which were physically seized and a total of 26 phone numbers were identified as being used by alleged criminal syndicate members to run drugs, with a combined potential customer database of 50,000 people.
All those phones were shut down, but not before approximately 50,000 identified contacts of the phone numbers were sent a text message to alert them to the fact their number was linked to an alleged drug running phone.
The text message to customers 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.”