A Scottish woman has been pictured for the first time after being charged following the discovery of £5.7m worth of ketamine in the boot of a shared rental car in Australia.
Demi McDaid, 23, was arrested alongside her boyfriend Jack Farrelly, 30, who cannot be pictured for legal reasons, at a hotel in Sydney on June 26. The arrest followed a raid by officers from New South Wales Police (NSWP).
During the bust, police uncovered 107kg of ketamine from the rental car, along with several mobile phones, over $2,000 in cash, and documents alleged to be drug ledgers. A simultaneous raid on a unit in Hampden Road, Artarmon, uncovered an additional 2kg of ketamine.
Charges and court appearance
McDaid and Farrelly were charged with two counts of supplying a prohibited drug – one larger than an indictable quantity and one larger than a commercial quantity. They appeared at Manly Local Court last month, where both were refused bail and ordered to reappear at the Downing Centre Local Court on August 25.
NSW Police will allege that McDaid and Farrelly came to Australia with “the sole purpose of taking part in the distribution and supply of large commercial quantities of prohibited drugs”. In a statement, the force said: “Further investigations into anyone else who may have been involved are underway.”
Investigation details
The pair's plot was uncovered after detectives were tipped off by locals about suspicious activity at the unit they had rented. According to police, the bust was a mix of “good old-fashioned police work” from senior detectives combined with the skills of tech-savvy younger team members that allowed officers to track the alleged owner of abandoned luggage to a hotel in North Sydney.
The drugs are understood to have an estimated street value of AUD$11 million, approximately £5.7 million. Images released by police show the rental car's boot packed with bags of the drug, as well as piles of ketamine after the seizure.
Acting Crime Manager for North Shore Police Area Command Detective Acting Inspector Alison Dixon said drug syndicates are increasingly relying on short-term rental accommodations to avoid detection. She stated: “We have seen this before in short stays and encourage property owners to be wary. People staying in hotels and Airbnbs, we see a lot of illegal activities come and go through those places. Stuff out of the ordinary that doesn’t look right... if it doesn’t look right, it probably isn’t.”
