How NSW drug supply prosecutions work when police seize large quantities – what joint enterprise charges mean for everyone caught up in an operation
In the final week of June 2026, NSW Police concluded Strike Force Mokine – a major investigation established in July 2025 after the seizure of 400 kilograms of methylamphetamine by the Organised Crime Squad. Over two days, 25 search warrants were executed across the Lake Illawarra and South Coast regions, resulting in multiple arrests. People were charged with supply of prohibited drugs greater than indictable quantity, possession of prohibited drugs, and proceeds of crime related offences. Cash, drugs including MDMA, fentanyl, methylamphetamine, cocaine and cannabis, and weapons including Tasers and prohibited knives, were seized.
Operations like Strike Force Mokine are not unusual – they are the template for how NSW Police, the NSW Crime Commission, the Australian Federal Police, and the Australian Border Force work together on major drug investigations. What makes them significant from a criminal law perspective is how the charges that follow are constructed. Not every person arrested in a major drug operation is charged as if they seized 400 kilograms personally. But joint enterprise doctrine, the quantity tier system, and the resources dedicated to these investigations mean that people who played peripheral roles in a supply network can still face very serious charges. Understanding how these cases are built is essential if you have been caught up in one.
How major drug supply investigations are structured
A major drug investigation does not begin with a single search warrant. It typically begins with intelligence – from informants, from monitoring of communications, from interceptions of importation attempts, or from financial intelligence gathered by AUSTRAC and shared with police. The investigative period can last months or years. During that period, police gather surveillance evidence, telecommunications data, financial transaction records, and observations of premises and vehicles. The physical seizures that conclude an investigation are the culmination of that longer process, not its beginning.
In a major operation, evidence assembled over months typically includes: telephone intercept material showing communications between participants, surveillance footage of premises and vehicles, financial records showing movement of cash and assets, GPS tracking evidence from vehicles, statements from informants, forensic analysis of drugs seized at multiple points during the investigation, and digital evidence from devices seized during the final execution of warrants. This is the brief that faces a person charged in the operation – not just evidence about what was found on the day of arrest, but evidence about everything police observed across the entire investigation period.
The quantity tiers and how they apply in major operations
The Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act 1985 (NSW) quantity tiers apply even in major operations. A 400-kilogram methylamphetamine seizure sits far above the large commercial quantity threshold of 1 kilogram. Supply of a large commercial quantity of methylamphetamine carries a maximum of life imprisonment. But the question for each accused person is not what the overall seizure was – it is what that individual person can be proven to have supplied, attempted to supply, or been party to supplying.
Where a person is charged with supply of a large commercial quantity, the prosecution must establish that the quantity supplied by that person – whether individually or as part of a joint enterprise – exceeds the large commercial threshold. A person who handled one kilogram within an operation that moved 400 kilograms does not automatically face the same charge as the person who controlled the entire 400 kilograms, unless the joint enterprise doctrine extends their liability to the full quantity.
Joint criminal enterprise in drug cases – how it works
Joint criminal enterprise is the legal doctrine that allows prosecution of all participants in a criminal agreement for the agreed criminal conduct, even where they did not personally carry out every act. In drug supply cases, courts apply this doctrine where: multiple people agreed to participate in a supply operation, each person played a defined role (logistics, storage, distribution, finance), and the conduct carried out by each person was within the scope of the agreed enterprise.
The Judicial Commission of NSW has addressed the application of joint enterprise to drug matters in its bench book materials. The critical question for each accused person is the scope of what they agreed to. A person who agreed to store drugs at a specified location, without knowing the total scale of the operation, may have a strong argument that their criminal liability is limited to the quantity they personally handled rather than the total quantity moved through the network. A person who knew the scale of the operation and actively participated in its coordination is in a much more difficult position.
Roles within a supply operation and their legal significance
In major operation prosecutions, the prosecution distinguishes between roles. Those who funded, directed, or controlled the operation typically face the most serious charges at the highest quantity tier. Those who performed specific tasks – driving, storage, cutting, packaging, delivery – are assessed based on their knowledge of the operation’s scope and the quantity they personally handled or agreed to handle. Couriers and logistics participants are sometimes charged with lesser quantities than the overall operation, particularly where the evidence establishes they had a limited view of the full scale.
The role played within the operation is also the most significant factor in sentencing, alongside the quantity. The NSW Sentencing Council data shows that sentences in commercial and large commercial drug supply matters are heavily influenced by the accused’s position in the organisational hierarchy. A low-level logistics participant, even in a very large operation, is sentenced differently from the person who controlled the supply network.
Proceeds of crime – the parallel legal track
In major drug operations, criminal asset recovery runs parallel to the criminal prosecution. The Criminal Assets Recovery Act 1990 (NSW) allows the NSW Crime Commission to apply for restraining orders over assets alleged to be proceeds of serious crime, and for orders to forfeit those assets, on a civil standard of proof. Under the 2026 organised crime reforms, authorities now have up to five years (extended from one year) to seek forfeiture of assets held by people subject to Drug Trafficker Declarations.
This means that cash found at a premises, property held in a family member’s name, vehicles, bank accounts, and any assets associated with the accused can be subject to restraining orders very quickly – often before criminal charges are finalised. The civil proceeds proceedings can continue even if the criminal matter is not established, and the standard of proof (balance of probabilities) makes them easier to establish than the criminal charge.
Bail in major drug matters
Bail for people charged in major organised drug supply operations is difficult to obtain. Commercial and large commercial quantity drug supply are show cause offences under the Bail Act 2013 (NSW). The accused must demonstrate why continued detention is not justified. In major operation cases, the prosecution typically argues: the seriousness and scale of the alleged offending, the accused’s connections to an ongoing criminal network, the risk of continued offending, the risk of flight where there is evidence of financial resources or overseas connections, and the difficulty of imposing conditions that adequately address these risks.
Contact Us
At National Criminal Lawyers, we advise on drug supply prosecutions at all levels – from single quantity charges through to major operation arrests involving joint enterprise doctrine and proceeds of crime recovery. These are among the most complex matters in NSW criminal law and require specialist attention from the very day of arrest.
Call us at 1800 CRIM LAW for a free consultation. Help us help you understand your situation and get you the best outcome possible.
