A young Mount Keira man who ran the offshoot enterprise of a large-scale party drug syndicate operating in the Illawarra prided himself on supplying customers with the best coke on the market, a court has heard.
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A bug planted inside the home of two of his co-accused recorded David Ognenovski repeatedly bragging about the quality of the product he brought to the Illawarra market, referring to it as "Bolivia coke" and at one stage telling an associate it was "93 per cent, best you can get".
That person was incredulous when they saw Ognenovski's supply inside the Wollongong home on June 27 last year.
"What the f--k? How much is that?" the associate said.
"Holy shit, f--k me dead. I've never seen this much rack in my life."
Documents tendered to Wollongong Local Court on Wednesday said Ognenovski ran an offshoot of a sophisticated drug syndicate allegedly headed by Coniston twins Joel and Flinn Westman.
Police will allege Ognenovski bought cocaine from the same Sydney supplier as the brothers, and the trio at times made joint purchases to keep costs down.
Ognenovski then divvied his share of the drugs up between two housemates for on-supply to street-level users and dealers.
I rang the other place up and they wanted $300....I think that was Go-Hire. But that's red hot as f--k, you have to put your name and details and everything ...
In total, Ognenovski was recorded supplying the duo with 637g of cocaine.
He also used the housemates' Mangerton Road home as the base for the illegal operation.
Police discovered 504g of MDMA stashed in a jet ski stored inside the garage of the home when it was raided on August 16 last year.
The court heard Ognenovski came under police notice by two separate strike forces set up to investigate drug supply in the region.
The strike force overseeing the operation allegedly involving the Westman twins recorded Ognenovski attending the brothers' Wonson Avenue home on multiple occasions to do business, including counting money and cutting up and bagging fresh batches of cocaine.
Ognenovski was also overheard allegedly engaging in lengthy discussions with the pair about the wider syndicate's supply capabilities, assessments of their drug runners and customers, where and how to source larger quantities of coke, how to maximise profits and how to evade authorities.
Meanwhile, a separate police strike force were watching Ognenovski and the two housemates inside the Mangerton Road home.
A bug planted inside the unit between May and August last year yielded hours of evidence detailing the highs and lows of the trio's drug activity, including conversations in which Ognenovski was heard discussing giving the two men large quantities of cocaine for on-supply to others.
"I'm pretty sure youse (sic) will be at twenty with that four....," Ognenovski was overheard telling the pair.
"[It's] 21,500 right now without that. If I add that on youse (sic) would be at 28,700. I'll give it to you for seven two."
But like any growing enterprise, space was at a premium, and police secretly recorded the trio at the end of May as they discussed sourcing a more permanent storage solution for their illegal activities.
"Shipping container, forty footer, 2,300 bucks," one of the housemates said.
"Get smaller," Ognenovski replied.
"Twenty footer ... I'll ring them up tomorrow and see if there is a spot for a container."
Two weeks later, the trio were again overheard talking about where to hide their drugs, this time whinging about the price of renting a storage unit - and the paperwork that came with it.
"Rent a spot ... a container in a spot for me was like six or seven .... a month," one of the men said.
"I rang the other place up and they wanted $300 ... I think that was Go-Hire. But that's red hot as f--k, you have to put your name and details and everything...".
However, they did agree that effective concealment was the key to not getting caught.
"We'll have our jet ski in there," Ognenovski said.
"Yeah, you don't just have a table with the drugs in there," one of the men responded, eliciting a laugh from Ognenovski.
"In a f--king container...f--king put it in the back like....shove heaps of f--king furniture and car parts and shit."
Ognenovski was arrested during sweeping raids at several properties on August 16.
He was charged with a host of drug offences and remanded in custody.
In court on Wednesday, he pleaded guilty to two counts of commercial drug supply. Further charges including participating in a criminal group and dealing with the proceeds of crime will be taken into account when he is sentenced later this year.
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