A former Lismore pool cleaner has been refused bail over an alleged role in a $14 million cocaine syndicate that concealed the drug inside timber planks transported across the NSW–Queensland border. That is according to evidence tendered at the Bail Division Court yesterday and reporting from News Limited mastheads.
Wood Central understands James Forde Galea, 26, appeared before Magistrate Christopher Longely in Bail Division Court yesterday, facing charges including supplying a prohibited firearm to an unauthorised person, supplying a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug, supplying an indictable quantity of a prohibited drug, failing to comply with a digital evidence access order, and dealing with the proceeds of crime between $5,000 and $100,000.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Patrick Sinclair said the case against Galea was strong and relied heavily on encrypted communications that he alleged related to “the organisation and logistics of the sale and acquisition of prohibited firearms and commercial quantities of prohibited drugs.”
Galea’s appearance comes as Wood Central reported that four Gold Coast men were charged in connection with the same operation. Peter John Edyvean, a website manager and cryptocurrency enthusiast, Anthony Iain Hart, German Muriel Prieto and Daniel Dominic Genco — three from Southport and one from Upper Coomera — each face questions over one of the country’s most sophisticated alleged drug rings.
The timber was allegedly soaped in a cocaine solution before the drug was chemically extracted at a clandestine laboratory uncovered in Molendinar on the Gold Coast. NSW and Queensland police confiscated timber from warehouses in Lismore and the Gold Coast across the operation — with police citing figures ranging from four to ten tonnes across multiple seizure locations — and recovered more than 100 kilograms of cocaine in total.
Strike Force Capulin was established by the NSW Drug and Firearms Squad in August 2025 after intelligence suggested timber planks had been chemically bonded with cocaine and were destined for extraction by an organised criminal group. Investigators are still examining the timber’s origin, how it was treated, and whether legitimate supply-chain channels were exploited in the process.
Detective Superintendent John Watson said cross-border cooperation was central to dismantling the network: “Information flowed quickly, resources were shared, and the result is a major disruption to organised crime,” he said.
Mewanwhile Acting Detective Superintendent Brad Phelps said the coordinated effort allowed police to intervene before the drugs reached the street. “This concealment methodology, of impregnating cocaine into timber planks, had not been detected in Queensland previously,” he said. “These actions resulted in disrupting this criminal activity and preventing a significant quantity of cocaine from making its way onto the streets and causing community harm.”
Galea faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment on the most serious charges laid against him.
- To read more about the sting, click here for Wood Central’s special feature from last month.
