Strike Force Boikanumba: Two more men charged; Paul Andrew Allan and Dean Farrant behind bars as police dismantle alleged drug ring

More men were charged this week by officers from Strike Force Boikanumba – set up to bring down the cannabis supply chain in Tamworth, Caroona, Quirindi and Willow Tree.

The Leader can reveal police allege the ringleader, Westdale’s Paul Andrew Allan, who remains behind bars, allegedly supplied more than 40kg of cannabis, as well as a quantity of methamphetamine between October and February 5.

Fellow co-accused, Dean Farrant, of Quipolly, is charged with supplying more than 23kg of cannabis and an ounce of methamphetamine.

Six men have now been charged after two more arrests this week.

“This was an exhaustive operation involving a significant amount of traffickable drugs,” Oxley Acting Inspector Geoff Sharpe told The Leader. 

“Police will allege the majority of the prohibited drugs was supplied or destined for streets in Tamworth, Caroona, Quirindi and Willow Tree.”

The secret sting unfolded in a series of daylight raids in Oxley Vale, Westdale, Coledale, Quipolly and Caroona on February 5.

Minutes beforehand, several police swooped in Freeman’s Waterhole, near the Central Coast, arresting Allan and Farrant.

Police will allege the pair travelled from Tamworth to the location and were set to exchange money in return for drugs when they were intercepted by a swarm of police.

Brett Anthony Allan, 52, became the sixth person charged as part of the operation by Oxley detectives and the Tamworth Target Action Group (TAG).

He fronted the dock of Tamworth Local Court charged with supplying cannabis, participating in a criminal group, dealing with proceeds of crime and possessing a drug.

He was not required to enter pleas but was granted conditional bail by magistrate Julie Soars to live under a curfew, report to police three times-a-week, post a $500 surety and must not contact his co-accused.

Acting Inspector Sharpe said some of the “charges related to drugs seized during the search warrants and investigations were continuing”.

A 67-year-old man from Oxley Vale was arrested after handing himself into investigators at Tamworth Police Station earlier this week.

He’s facing charges of supplying cannabis and possessing drugs and was granted bail by police to front court at a later date.

Van Hieu Vu, 43, of Croydon, in Sydney’s inner west and 33-year-old Quand Thang Bui of Bass Hill near Bankstown in Sydney, were also arrested in the sting in Freeman’s Waterhole.

Vu was granted bail but Bui was denied bail in a fresh bid in Newcastle on Wednesday after a magistrate found he was an unacceptable risk if released.