Two men have allegedly been kidnapped and detained for hours at Cringila after they returned from a $9000 drug deal with bags of table salt instead of methylamphetamine.
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The men went missing for more than 24 hours, prompting family members to raise the alarm with police, who began investigating under Strike Force Iloa.
The men were released Tuesday afternoon, after one had allegedly spent many hours captive in a small laundry crawl space and another's mother had scrambled to raise much of the missing money.
Police have charged three people - Benjamin John Walker, 43, Tara Clare, 35 and Ilo Ilievski, 42 - over the mens' ordeal, which began on Monday when they travelled to Sydney to buy three ounces of methylamphetamine.
The men have told police they admitted they had been dudded at a meeting with Clare, Walker and another man that afternoon at Cringila Petroleum Service Station, taking responsibility for the $9000 debt.
Police allege they agreed to demands to accompany the trio elsewhere to discuss how to re-pay the debt.
They were allegedly taken to Clare's Cringila home, where one man had his phone confiscated and was confined to the crawl space. The other was allowed his freedom, so he could phone family members and ask them for money.
Police allege Walker threatened one of the men and assaulted him with the blunt end of a tomahawk in a later stage of the ordeal.
"I'm going to chop you up and then go to your parents if you go to the police," he allegedly said.
Police allege Ilievski played the role of mediator as the trio continued efforts to extract money from the men.
The mother of one of the allegedly captive men made payments of $1500 and $2500 into her son's account after he phoned her for help.
Police allege the man was forced to transfer the money into Clare's account and that CCTV cameras captured her collecting the money from an ANZ branch at Figtree at 1.30pm Tuesday.
Both men were released about two hours later.
By then the worried mother had raised the alarm with police, who began patrols.
They allegedly saw Walker at the wheel of his former victim's car, with Clare in the passenger seat, sitting idle at a property for 30 minutes before they were collected by another car, a silver Volkswagen.
About 6.20pm police stopped the Volkswagen at Quality Suites Pioneer Sands at Towradgi, where Clare had booked a room. They arrested the trio, allegedly finding a tomahawk in the boot and $4500 cash on Ilievski. Another man who was in the car has provided a statement to police.
Clare was granted bail at Wollongong Local Court on Wednesday. Walker was refused; Ilievski did not apply.
The matters will return to court July 15.