The alleged head of a major drug distribution network has been refused conditional liberty due to the seizure of dozens of "chocolate bars".
Michael Adam Kustic, 39, faced the ACT Magistrates Court on Friday for 47 charges and was refused bail relating to one product he is accused of selling.
His charges include trafficking in a large commercial quantity of a controlled drug, participating in a criminal group, and multiple counts of fraud, supplying anabolic steroids and further drug trafficking.
The drugs were allegedly sold online by the group, said to be operating under the encrypted message handle "OzPharmLabs", and distributed nationally through Australia Post from the "online pharmacy".
The alleged illicit drugs included multiple types of anabolic steroids, Xanax, human growth hormones, cannabis oil, THC and psilocybin [magic mushrooms].
"I can confidently say this is the largest seizure of prescription drugs we've ever had in the territory and also down in Victoria as well," Detective Inspector Mark Steel said last week about the territory-state operation.
Two other men, Thomas Eric Kelleher, 38, and James Peter Martens, 27, were arrested and charged over the matter.
Kustic was arrested and extradited to the ACT from Queanbeyan Local Court.
The court previously heard the alleged offender is accused of dealing in the proceeds of crime exceeding $1 million dollars.
While seized drugs were still being analysed, Detective Inspector Steele last week said he expected their value to land in the "seven-figure range".
During their raid, police also seized a home, five cars, three motorbikes, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.
Police documents previously tendered to the court allege Kustic self-identifies as the "boss" of the "highly sophisticated criminal network".
Due to the nature of Kustic's most serious offence, being trafficking in a large commercial quantity of a controlled drug, he was required to prove special or exceptional circumstances allowed his granting of bail.
But defence barrister James Maher argued the charge was wrongly laid.
He claimed the gross weight of the seized 40-odd chocolate bars, said to contain psilocybin, was used by police to meet the charge's threshold.
Instead, Mr Maher said, the bars should have been assessed by the four grams of the drug allegedly contained within each of them.
The difference in weight, the court heard, was 2.4kg and 160g, which would drop the alleged offending to a considerably lower charge.
Using the bars' gross weight to lay a charge with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, Mr Maher said, was "totally inappropriate".
The barrister also said several of Kustic's charges were "inflated unnecessarily and perhaps improperly".
Ultimately, magistrate Glenn Theakston refused the man's bail.
He is yet to enter any pleas and is set to appear again in court next week.
