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Former Olympic swimmer Scott Miller has been charged with directing a $2.2million ice syndicate as police storm hi
Alleged drug lord and former Olympian Scott Miller’s tragic past has been laid bare after he was arrested for allegedly directing a $2.2million ice syndicate.
Miller was previously married to model and TV personality Charlotte Dawson until he was allegedly caught on CCTV entering a toilet to snort drugs and have sex with another woman in 2000.
Miller didn’t deny snorting drugs with the other woman in a later interview with 60 Minutes, but he did refute having sex.
The couple had a tumultuous post-divorce relationship, with Miller accusing his ex of undermining his Olympic career after she claimed in her memoir that she forced him to abort her baby.
Ms Dawson took her own life after intense internet trolling in February 2014 – the day after Miller held a party for his 39th birthday.
Earlier that year, Dawson revealed she fell into a depression following the breakdown of her marriage.
‘It was the most painful time in my life. I’m not looking forward to it, it may not be good for me’, she told The Daily Telegraph at the time.
‘To me it was well over 10 years ago, but truthfully this marriage broke me to the core.’
Miller has admitted having troubles in his personal life in recent years.
During an interview a week before Dawson died, Miller admitted he was battling a drug addiction.
Miller sat slumped in a chair, shirtless, as police searched his apartment in Rozelle, in Sydney’s inner west, just after dawn on Tuesday morning
On the march: Miller (left and right) was allowed to put on a striped polo shirt, handcuffed and taken to Newtown Police Station when he was arrested
He worked as a drug awareness and prevention speaker with the Church of Scientology’s Narconon program, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The day after Dawson’s suicide, Miller’s family said he was ‘in a state of shock’ but determined to turn his life around.
‘He said, “this is showing me how many people that are out there that need help, now I’m going to channel my energies into helping others,”‘ his mother Jenny Miller said in 2014.
Police stormed Miller’s apartment in Sydney’s inner west just after 6am on Tuesday, scouring his Rozelle unit for evidence.
During the hours-long raid officers allegedly seized a kilogram of heroin worth up to $250,000, wads of $50 and $100 notes totaling $75,000, mobile phones and a white Toyota Camry.
Police allege the one-time swimming golden boy sought to smuggle $2million worth of the drug ice to towns in regional New South Wales by concealing it in candles.
Miller, a silver medallist in the 100m butterfly at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, was spirited away to Newtown Police Station where he was charged late on Tuesday afternoon.
This image shows the type of candle Miller’s syndicate allegedly used to smuggle the $2.2million worth of ice. Police claim the drug was moulded into the candle’s glass shell
Police will allege that a kilogram of heroin and $75,000 worth of cash were found in Miller’s property (in bags on left). On right, an officer carries out a set of scales
Bundles of $50 and $100 notes were clearly visible through in police evidence bags
A source familiar with the investigation said Miller refused an interview with police.
He did not appear at Newtown Local Court when the case was briefly managed.
His solicitor Hugh Salter didn’t apply for bail and it was formally refused.
A 47-year-old business associate of Miller’s, Wayne Allan Johnson, was likewise charged with participating in a criminal group and a drug charge, and a business premises in Bankstown was raided.
He appeared briefly in the dock, did not apply for bail and it was formally refused.
About a dozen officers participated in the raid on Miller’s home. Above, two officers carry regulation cardboard evidence bags out to waiting police cars
At Miller’s apartment block, more than a dozen officers were seen meticulously sorting through Miller’s possessions.
Officers were seen lifting Miller’s mattress and inspecting a packet of anti-inflammatory medication as his pet pug waddled excitedly around the unit.
One policeman was pictured carrying a set of scales out of the property.
The investigation into Miller began just weeks ago, after police discovered a shipment of candles where each allegedly contained half a kilogram of high-quality methamphetamine. The substance was moulded into glass containers.
In what may well be an understatement given his door was bashed in with a battering ram, Drugs and Firearms Squad commander John Watson said Miller had been ‘surprised’ by the dawn raid.
No stone left unturned: A police officer inspected a packet of anti-inflammatory medication during the raid
Police piled up bags of evidence in regulation cardboard carriers outside the luxe Balmain Cove property
Documents and evidence bags were heaped in the back of a waiting NSW Police vehicle
This is the luxurious apartment complex – Balmain Cove – which Miller had called home
Police will allege that Miller was directing a syndicate that allegedly planned to ship the drug ice to Albury on New South Wales – Victorian border
Miller claimed on LinkedIn to have been a business development manager for a company called reinteractive.
However, sources insisted that he only worked very briefly at the business on a trial basis for just three weeks – but has never updated his profile.
A source close to Miller said he had been working for a shipping business until recently.
Both Miller and Johnson’s cases return to Newtown Local Court on April 13. Further charges are expected to be laid.
Miller was a silver and bronze medallist at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games (left, with his 100m butterfly silver). He is the ex-husband of the late socialite Charlotte Dawson (right)
Miller is Australian swimming royalty. In this 2003 photograph, he is pictured back row with Michael Klim and model Sarah Murdoch. Front row includes legendary Olympians Leisel Jones and Petria Thomas (both on right)
Miller is one of the country’s most accomplished butterfly athletes but his troubled private life has been well documented
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