Companies linked to a Canberra businessman arrested in Serbia in relation to an international drug ring supplied steel to build the new Belconnen Police Station and a number of other ACT and NSW government projects.
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Rohan Arnold, 43, David Campbell, 48, and Tristan Waters, 34, were arrested at gunpoint in the lobby of a five-star Belgrade hotel by Serbian authorities on Tuesday.
Authorities pounced as the trio were allegedly in the middle of handing over a bag containing cash in a number of different currencies, including Australian dollars, Chinese yuan, and Euros.
They stand accused of being connected to the discovery of 1280 kilograms of cocaine that was seized from a Chinese container boat docked in Sydney last year.
Police said the seizure – which had been secreted inside pre-fabricated steel - had the second largest haul of cocaine in Australian history, with a street value of $500 million.
Waters, a former nightclub security manager and labourer from Canberra, is referred to in Serbian reports as a "big narco-boss" who relocated to Dubai in recent years and owns hotels and assets worth more than $1 billion.
Waters was connected to several companies set up by, or involving, key members of the ATO tax fraud syndicate allegedly run by Adam Cranston, the son of the then ATO deputy commissioner Michael Cranston.
Arnold is a prominent saleyards director and steel businessman who made regular trips to China and raced in the Sydney to Hobart just three weeks ago.
Arnold's failed Goulburn steel manufacturing company, Mass Steel, trading as Old MS Pty Ltd, collapsed in 2013, owing more than $11 million.
He went on to become a director of SELX Pty Ltd, which started a livestock exchange at Yass in 2016 and a new centre set to open at Mortlake in Victoria this month.
ASIC documents show Arnold had previously held an interests in structural steel fabricator importer Solutions 4 Steel.
Arnold resigned as director and secretary and unloaded his shareholding in the company in December 2014.
The Solutions4Steel website lists 41 projects – including a number of ACT and federal government projects - completed by the company, worth millions of dollars.
The webpage claims to have supplied 176 tonnes of steel to build the Belconnen Police Station, worth $1.49 million.
Government tender documents show Mass Australia Pty Ltd, which later changed it's name to Old MS Pty Ltd, had won the contract in 2010.
Other ACT Government projects listed on the webpage include 350 tonnes of steel (worth $2 million) for the Bimberi Youth Detention Centre and 63 tonnes (worth $700,000) for the Acute Mental Health Ward at Canberra Hospital.
The company also won contracts in Canberra to provide steel for jobs at the National Portrait Gallery, Australian Sports Commission Rowing Australia office, Australian National University, Canberra Centre redevelopment, and the Gungahlin Uniting Church.
Interstate, the company claims to have supplied steel for NSW Government projects included Royal North Shore Hospital Community Health Building.
Other jobs include at Cessnock jail, the Australian Institute of Police Management, Queen Square Law Court, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney International Airport Terminal, Virgin VIP Lounge at Sydney Airport, Bradman Museum, University of Wollongong, University of Western Sydney Blacktown Hospital Clinical Site Building, and University of Newcastle Medical Sciences Building, and Macarthur Railway Station Upgrade, and Ravenswood School for Girls.
