An Albion Park Rail tradie has confessed to sourcing an illegal handgun and a set of NSW Police overalls for an associate he communicated with using the fatally-flawed ANOM messaging app.
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Benjamin Peter Baker, who owns KO Concreting, adopted the aliases 'Craig' and 'Capone' when using the app, which criminals around the world had adopted under the belief they could operate without fear of monitoring by law enforcement.
In June last year it was revealed the app was a Trojan horse that was secretly being controlled by the FBI, with officers able to track illegal activity in real time.
Documents tendered to Wollongong Local Court said police monitored Baker's communication with an associate, identified only as 'VDI' in court documents but who the Mercury understands is also an Illawarra resident, between May 2020 and March 2021.
On May 15, Baker sent VDI a message saying "hey bro, got the rest of that attire here for you."
He then sent VDI a pictured of an official NSW Police uniform including tactical overalls and a hat with official police patches attached. He also had a set of loose patches.
VDI replied "f--k yeah, kitted out".
VDI again reached out to Baker two months later, asking him to source a gun.
"Got a very serious question for ya," VDI wrote.
"Ask away my friend. What is your very serious question my very serious friend?" Baker replied.
"Seeing as you know every single person from [Albion] Park to Batemans Bay, can you get hold of a gun?" VDI asked.
Baker asked his friend if he was after a "hand or a rifle", prompting the man to respond "whatever man, probably hand one's better but if a nice shotyy (sic) or something pops up, I'll grab it".
Baker came up with the goods three weeks later, messaging VDI with confirmation he could secure a revolver for him.
"Not as cool looking as a snub nose or a flock (sic) of anything but probably the safest one to use for not getting done as they don't project the casing," he wrote, before sending another message correcting his earlier mistake of "flock" to "Glock".
VDI responded "whatever pops up, slap a few bucks on for yourself as well bra."
Baker then said "you should be rolling in it, I'm just a dirtbag concreter".
Police executed a search warrant at Baker's home on December 13 last year, uncovering a taser, cannabis, steroids and a flick knife.
The 39-year-old handed himself into police two days later and has been in custody without bail ever since.
He entered pleas of guilty to having a police uniform (and not being a police officer), supplying a firearm to a person unauthorised to possess it and two counts each of possessing a prohibited weapon and possessing a prohibited drug.
Baker will be sentenced on May 24.
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