Simone Farrow (aka Starr) arrives at the airport in custody.
On the run for almost a month, the blonde swimsuit model was extradited to Sydney on Wednesday night after her arrest at a cheap hotel on the Gold Coast Highway.
Accused of trafficking "ice" in bags of bath salts from a plush Hollywood high-rise, an emotional Farrow broke down and pleaded her innocence on arrival at Sydney airport.
Flanked by two federal police officers, Farrow, 37, who has at least 19 aliases and a long-lost teenage daughter, claimed she only fled interstate because "someone was trying to murder me".
Farrow has now been remanded in custody on charges which include the alleged 2009 drug operation.By skipping bail, Farrow put at risk $150,000 surety put up by a Sydney barrister and a flamboyant doctor.
Court documents tendered at one of Farrow's bail hearings in February reveal the ex-Ed Hardy beach babe had legally changed her surname to Lawson in November.
Police suspected this was a ruse to flee the country.Farrow is charged with importing "ice" into Australia and police allege she was the brains behind an "ongoing criminal enterprise" that involved at least seven people.
The Sunday Telegraph can reveal that one member of the alleged syndicate committed suicide in a Hollywood motel the day after being contacted by US authorities.
Court documents tendered at the bail hearing said Farrow allegedly asked about having bikies pursue a Victorian man over a five-figure drug debt.
The documents said the alleged enterprise was run from Farrow's apartment, located off Sunset Boulevard.
Police claim Farrow organised for high-grade crystal methylamphetamine, which was often piled up on desks in the apartment, to be mailed to NSW and Victoria hidden in parcels containing "bath products", "pants" or "small fountain kits".
Farrow allegedly developed a method of hiding the drugs inside the bath products, court documents said.
Buyers sent cash to Farrow through the post or made deposits at National Australia Bank branches into her bank account, the court heard.
More than $580,000 was put into her account between February 2009 and October 2010, court documents said.
Surry Hills man Mark Andrew Bolton, with whom Farrow formed such a close relationship that she called him "Dad", told police he paid the model more than $200,000 for drugs, court documents said.
Some of the alleged buyers never met Farrow.
The AFP investigated the leggy blonde after Customs intercepted seven Fed-Ex and United Postal Service packages which contained ice or chemicals used as a cutting agent for the drug.
Police allege the packages were posted to five people in Victoria and NSW. AFP documents say a further 39 "consignments" were sent to Australian recipients "under similar circumstances" but were not detected.
The AFP worked with officers from the US Drug Enforcement Administration to investigate Farrow and her company GlobalStarr.
USDEA officers visited GlobalStarr "accounts executive" Xander Rian at the San Vicente Inn in West Hollywood on October 14, 2009.
At midday the following day they contacted Rian again to arrange a 2pm meeting but arrived to find Rian dead after apparently committing suicide.
After compiling information from phone, bank and postage records, AFP officers arrested Farrow in October, 2009 when she arrived in Australia on a flight from Hawaii.
US agents raided Farrow's Hollywood apartment on October 15, 2009 and allegedly seized 85g of ice and documents relating to drug shipments, court documents said.
Farrow's assistant, Jessica Petit, said she had sent numerous packages to Australia on instruction from Farrow, court documents said. She said she saw "large amounts of ice" at Farrow's house and stopped working for her soon after.
After her arrest Farrow was bailed when a Moss Vale woman she met in jail put up $300,000 surety. That was dropped to $150,000, put up by barrister Anthony Renshaw and doctor Joseph Grech.
As a condition of her bail Farrow was to reside at Renshaw's Double Bay apartment before that was altered to allow her to live in Grech's Paddington property.
But that money was put at risk when Farrow failed to appear at two scheduled court appearances last month and went on the run.
No comments:
Post a Comment