It’s an unlikely setting for an investigation into a bikie. But in this wealthy Sydney suburb is a man police suspect of selling a deadly drug.
And he’s no saint. He’s been convicted of manslaughter. He’s done time in one of New Zealand’s toughest prisons.
He’s been deported several times, but he just keeps coming back. And now he’s under police surveillance.
The target is Shane Oien. >> It’s 2001 and a new illegal drug is emerging on the Australian [music] market.
It’s methamphetamine, known as ice. >> It is the new scourge. I am concerned that we risk losing a whole generation.
It’s highly addictive with deadly consequences. It’s killing about 100 people a year. And police suspect this man, Shane Oien, is getting rich from it.
> He was a proud member of the Bandidos. He was only nominee. But in saying that, he had access to and commonly associated with high-ranking members of the Bandidos Outlaw Motorcycle Gang.
>> Even police who have seen plenty of crims know he’s not to be messed with.
>> Oh, I’m telling you, police say they don’t come much more dangerous than that.
>> So, being a bikie and a convicted killer, you’d think Shane lives rough. Oh, no.
Shane lives the high life. He’s a harbor hugger. And he’s set up in a waterfront property in Elizabeth Bay in Sydney.
Fair to say it’s not your usual Bandidos hangout. Drive-bys here are to check out how many million the place next door went for.
One of his neighbors regularly makes it onto the list of Australia’s richest men. Shane loves to travel, coming in and out of the country and the state using false names.
>> It was nothing for Shane to wake up at 10:00 in the morning, book an air flight, and board a plane at 12:00 midday 2 hours later and fly down to Victoria for a couple of days.
It’s just the kind of life he was. There was just nothing was a hurdle, nothing was an issue.
He just did whatever he wanted. >> And police suspect his jet-setting lifestyle, the ability to take off whenever he pleases, and the place where he lives is being paid for with drug money.
See, Shane doesn’t have a job. Well, not a legal one anyway. This is police surveillance footage.
Shane, the suspected drug lord, is in the white shirt. Police have been watching Shane as he travels, but he plays it safe in the open.
So, police need to get inside Shane’s apartment. They get a warrant and they’re able [music] to get into Shane’s house when he’s not there.
The footage you are seeing is real. Police are now inside Shane’s apartment, and they have to be quick.
They have no idea when he might return. Police head straight for the kitchen, an unlikely spot, but these seasoned officers know exactly what they’re looking for.
They’ve come prepared with tools to take a sample of drugs if they find anything.
They go to the freezer. Inside is a suspicious package. It may look small, but that find in the freezer could be massive.
>> Can I get a little bit of powder? >> That yellow powder could be what they came for, the methylamphetamine, known as ice.
And this is one of the first investigations ever done in New South Wales into those who are selling it.
>> Get a little bit of you, but little bit of you get a little bit of you but now and >> Now, it doesn’t look like much, but if that is ice, on the street, Shane could sell that tiny tub for hundreds of thousands [music] of dollars.
Police take enough of a sample to work out what [music] drug it is and how strong it is, but not enough that Shane would notice.
They have to be quick and put everything back exactly as it was. Then, police are out of there.
The tests [music] on these samples confirm there is methylamphetamine, high-grade ice, in Shane Oien’s freezer.
But now police need to know how it got there and exactly how deep is Shane’s involvement [music] in drugs.
Detectives watch Shane Oien as he comes and goes from his luxury apartment, but there’s only one way to know what goes on inside.
>> The next part of the investigation was to monitor what happened in his home.
>> Police install cameras and microphones. They’ll be watching non-stop. It’s Shane’s criminal behavior police are focusing on, and it takes less than a day to get it.
Shane checks on his drug load, the ice. He will sell that ice, and police will be watching.
Not only are they targeting Shane, they are now targeting anyone who buys, sells, or makes drugs for him.
24 hours later, Shane has a mate over for coffee. Their cameras are still rolling and police hear them chatting.
No idle gossip here. This is a breakthrough. Police are about to get evidence that Shane is a bigger player than even they thought.
He really is the ice man. You’re watching the inside of a drug dealer’s apartment.
He’s a bikie, but this isn’t in some dodgy part of town. This apartment is in one of Sydney’s most affluent [music] suburbs and police are about to hear Shane Oien talking about ingredients to make the deadly drug ice.
Hypophosphorous, when mixed [music] with other chemicals, turns simple cold and flu tablets into the lethal drug ice and Shane wants huge quantities.
The amount he’s asked for could make almost a million dollars worth. >> He had aspirations to move up in the criminal world and to make himself a make a name for himself.
That was Shane. >> Police have had the cameras in Shane’s home for 9 days now, and they’re about to get another piece of [music] evidence.
Shane is in the kitchen with something in his hand. He takes it to the freezer.
Could this be a new batch of methamphetamine, ice? Police need to know. They need to get into his house again to see what’s in the freezer, and if it’s drugs, to test it.
Police have to be careful. They know this is a crim who’s been around the block.
And if he gets any whiff [music] of a police investigation, he won’t be caught.
>> It’d be nothing for him to drive down dark alleys seeing who followed him.
He’d drive around a roundabout two two or three laps of a roundabout to see.
Everyone’s got to keep driving past. >> The only place he truly feels safe is his home, and he has no idea police [music] are there, too.
And the very next day, with another warrant, police are about to get into his apartment again.
The cameras indicate no one is home. They ring the doorbell just to be safe.
No answer. Then, all of a sudden, someone is actually home. The police have to think quick.
The wrong answer could blow it. >> Hello, Linda? >> No, wrong place. >> Is that your unit, though?
>> Wrong place. >> Sorry, I must have the wrong unit. >> Detectives have to call off the search, but Shane’s girlfriend seems to be suspicious.
The next day, she tells Shane what happened. >> Hello, Shane. Um, okay, how are you?
Someone um kept buzzing and buzzing me yesterday. And they were here really, really early, and I got up once, and I just waited to see how many times they buzzed.
I picked it up, and I was saying, “Is it Linda?” “Linda? They’ll ask you for Linda.”
So, I just hung it up, went back to bed, and they buzzed again. So, I said, “Sorry, you’ve got the wrong number.
There’s no Linda here. Bye.” >> Ironically, police were even watching the phone call. Police just have to wait.
They still have to go in to check what could be in the freezer. It’s not long before Shane’s [music] girlfriend leaves.
Now she’s out of the way, police strike. They have to be quick, though. They have no idea when she returns.
Fast, but precise. They grab both containers from the freezer. >> There’s the first container.
>> Taking a sample from the new batch. >> Take a sample from the lid.
>> It’s nerve-racking. They have to be long enough to get what they need, but quick enough to be out of there before anyone comes home.
And then, they’re out. Gone. With their sample. >> It’s another one of those tough calls for police.
If they arrest Shane now, they’ll never know where he’s getting the drugs from, or where they’re headed.
But they’re about to get a lead. Two days after they secretly entered his apartment, a mysterious visitor, someone police haven’t seen before, turns up on their cameras.
>> She’s quite at home. She knows where the cling wrap is. Detectives are watching as she grabs the batch of ice the police tested from the freezer.
It seems like she’s taking the ice with her. But to where? Is she an ex-girlfriend ripping him off?
Is she a buyer? Is she a courier delivering the drugs from Shane to someone else?
This woman has no idea police are watching her right now. She’s in a suspected drug dealer’s apartment and has just helped herself to his load of methylamphetamine, ice, in the freezer.
[music] But police have no idea how she fits in, whether she’s robbing Shane Oien, the target, or if [music] she’s a courier or a buyer.
And if they pounce on her as she leaves, Shane could easily find out. Police tail her following her through the streets and to Central Station.
And they watch as she jumps on a train to Victoria. [music] >> As that train arrived in Victoria, she was stopped and searched and located on her again was near 2 lb of amphetamine that Shane had again arranged to be transported to Victoria for supply.
>> The news of the arrest gets to Shane the very next day. >> We needed the drug.
We We needed the drug and we needed the lab. >> And that’s why police can’t arrest Shane just yet.
Sure, they’re closing in on him. They know the drug courier was at his house.
They know he’s selling illegal substances, but they need to know where the lab is, where it’s being made.
They decide to focus on the places Shane visits regularly, and some of those are normal-looking properties in Sydney’s western suburbs.
This is police footage and audio. >> Heads up, guys. I’ve got the Musso in the driveway.
Shane’s here, red t-shirt. >> And his Bendigo mates who he’s hanging with, we knew who they were.
We’d monitored Shane meeting them. We knew who they were. We knew they knew how to cook drugs.
They’d prior convictions for cooking drugs. It was obvious that this team together had got together for one for one idea.
That was to cook drugs >> [music] >> and to make money. That’s what they wanted to do and that’s what they were about.
>> Cooking drugs. That’s the term for making these methylamphetamines, this ice. They’re made up of four different ingredients and they can vary depending on what the drug maker can get his hands on.
And it’s dangerous. Any excess heat and it could explode. So, the police need to know if the cook the drug making is going on inside the house.
And the only way to know that is another hidden camera, of course. >> It doesn’t take long for police to work it out.
They’ve hit the jackpot. >> And then, you know, they were for the party. >> This is where the drug ice in Shane’s freezer is being made.
They see scales, they see gloves, they see a drug lab. And police are about to get a bonus.
The man wandering around without his shirt on, well, he’s about to take a batch of the methylamphetamine ice back to Shane’s place to refine even more.
And the police cameras are waiting for him there, too. That roof footage is the final coup for police.
Watching this drug lord’s den has paid off. And now it’s time to Shane >> [music] >> and his associates.
>> About 5:30 a.m. We had a substantial briefing with a large number of police as we were planning on executing a large number of search warrants.
Shane was a big man. One thing we had in we had in our mind was if he wants to fight, it’s going to take a lot of people a lot of us to stop him.
He was a big big boy. >> Detectives are about to arrest a bikie for supplying methylamphetamine, known as ice.
They are striking first thing in the morning trying to catch him off guard. >> POLICE!
POLICE! >> POLICE! POLICE! >> POLICE! >> KEEP IT UP! >> GET HIM UP! >> HOLD HIM DOWN!
>> HOLD HIM IN! >> I’M DONE! >> THE LOOK ON SHANE’S FACE WAS PRICELESS.
HE THIS WAS THE last thing he was expecting. He thought he was safe in that unit and there we were in his bedroom with him and his girlfriend.
>> This is the real footage of Shane Oien, the drug lord, handcuffed, arrested. >> Could you state your full name and date of birth for the video, please, Shane?
>> My real name? James Wilson. >> James Wilson. >> Multiple names, multiple identities. His real name police didn’t even know till now.
And he’s not the only prisoner. >> Yeah, I’d say that. >> Yeah. >> Shane’s mate Simon, who brought the meth over, decided to stay the night.
>> Last night. Last night. What time did you get in here last night? >> So he’s there when police do the raid.
He rents the house with the lab. So they’ll take him down, too. And what’s in that overnight bag?
Tools that could be used to make drugs. >> I bachelor sort of scales. >> Police recognize those scales from yesterday’s cook at the lab.
>> Shane, do you wish to say anything at all about the contents of this bag?
>> No. >> Okay. Scissors? >> Two containers [clears throat] in the freezer. >> Yeah.
>> This time, police find containers of methylamphetamine in the freezer. That is worth $680,000.
That contains almost 7,000 individual street deals. That’s how strong this drug is. They also find cash from previous deals.
>> Behind the t-shirts, also in that third drawer, is some money. And before we start counting this, do you know how much is there?
>> No. Oh, yeah. Yeah, sort of do. >> How much is that? >> 22.
>> 22, and what are these bundled into fives are they? >> Mhm. 12, 13, 14.
>> So, we have $26,800. Do you agree with that, Shane? >> Correct. >> He still has no idea that police found out about his dealings from a tiny camera inside his own home.
>> We formed the opinion that we should aim at the top of the pyramid and take everyone down below him.
Shane, he was the man that everyone wanted to know. He was the man that had to go.
If we got him, we knew all his mates would come down with him as well.
>> You open up. Yeah. Corey, is it? >> Yeah, that’s me. >> At the same time, police take down the other men they saw cooking up the drugs.
>> You just want to come downstairs. We’ve got a search warrant [clears throat] to search the house.
>> And yes, there’s even more evidence. A recipe for the deadly drug. >> Two different references to um glass weights indicating some sort of chemical process.
>> And yet more of the killer cocktail. >> All right, there’s two clear plastic sealed containers.
We um didn’t pick up these found these two containers in the uh the freezer compartment.
Can you tell me what they Sorry? You don’t know? Is that yours? You’ve never seen it before?
>> Those tiny tubs have a street value of more than 200,000 [music] bucks. >> That was uh 0716 hours.
>> The lab is searched, too. Test after [music] test, and they all turn up positive for methylamphetamine.
>> It’s also come up alarms for methylamphetamine, so quite a high reading for >> It’s all proof of the crimes that were going on.
The courier caught in Victoria with the methylamphetamine from Shane’s apartment pleaded guilty to trafficking a drug of dependence and was sentenced to 12 months jail suspended for 2 years.
>> [music] >> Shane’s associates, Corey Thompson and Simon Benefield, were sentenced to 4 years for conspiracy [music] to manufacture a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug.
Shane’s girlfriend [music] pleaded guilty to concealing a serious offense and received an 18-month sentence.
The main man, Shane Oien, also known as Mark Wilcox and James Wilson, was charged with supplying and possessing not less than a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug.
He was sentenced to 12 years jail.
