A man has been charged with a long list of crimes after a mobile phone allegedly full of coded drug deals came into police hands.
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Police will allege the phone was receiving messages even as they seized it.
The device was back at the police station, with an officer in the process of taking down its Facebook Messenger content as evidence, when the account was remotely deactivated.
By then, police had captured days worth of exchanges involving multiple customers, prices, meet-up times and locations and quantities of methylamphetamine.
Police allege the phone belongs to Wollongong's Adrian Mauricio.
The 29-year-old piqued the interest of patrolling police when he was allegedly spotted with his de facto partner at Corrimal 7-Eleven shortly after 10pm on May 29, in defiance of an unrelated court order that is meant to keep the pair apart.
He allegedly left the woman's car and walked away in a bid to evade police, and had no wallet, phone or cash on him when officers confronted him nearby.
Police will allege they soon found his wallet in the nearby car, with $1750 cash inside. They also seized a mobile phone, logged in under Mauricio's name. It was unlocked and alive with an incoming message when an officer took hold of it. Mauricio's partner claimed no knowledge of it.
Mauricio, who was arrested on Sunday after police again allegedly spotted him in his partner's car and pulled it over, professed his innocence in court on Monday.
"The phone wasn't on me. Neither was the money," he told the registrar at Wollongong Bail Court.
He had earlier told police that the $1750 cash was leftover from $10,000 in super he had recently withdrawn.
He told police he used the drug ice but did not sell it.
The court heart Mauricio had a history of drug offences. He has been charged with eigth drug offences and two proceeds of crime offences.
Bail was refused. The matter returns to court on Tuesday.
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