SEVERAL people alleged to be connected to the Tamworth "ice castle" investigation will return to court next year as police compile evidence in the cases.
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Hayden Lansdown remains bail-refused, while Cathy Johnson and Scott Anthony Foster are on conditional bail.
Lansdown was arrested in Queensland earlier this year and extradited to Tamworth, where he was charged with seven firearm-related offences including supplying pistols; supplying a shortened firearm; and possessing a shortened firearm as well as an unregistered gun.
He wasn't required to enter pleas to the charges and police are preparing a brief.
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The case will return to court in mid-January. He made no application for bail and it was formally refused.
Johnson is accused of supplying more than an indictable quantity of drugs. She was arrested in Hillvue in South Tamworth in August but is yet to enter a plea. She had her bail varied in court.
Foster is yet to enter pleas to 12 charges including supplying a gun to someone unauthorised to possess it; possessing an unauthorised firearm; and giving a shortened gun to another.
He was charged in November after a raid on a Balala property near Uralla. Detectives allege they seized a .22 bolt-action rifle and ammunition.
The allegations against the 44-year-old centre on three firearms, allegedly in his possession or supplied in December last year in the Tamworth area.
He has been ordered to return to Tamworth court in mid-February. His case has been referred to the DPP to prosecute, which could mean it is later moved to the district court for trial or sentence.
The Strike Force Radius operation unfolded with a series of raids and arrests in Tamworth in May.
The police sting, which was set up in August 2018, involves Oxley detectives and officers from Tamworth Target Action Group.
Stephen Ross Hanshaw is alleged to be one of the ringleaders in the "ice castle business", which was allegedly supplying drugs out of his Petra Avenue housing commission unit.
Breanna Chillingworth
Northern Daily Leader Senior Crime and Court Reporter
Northern Daily Leader Senior Crime and Court Reporter
