This man seems to like being on camera — as long as he's taking selfies
He won't much like these photos; they were taken by police
They capture a remarkable moment —precisely when he's panicking because he can't find a big bag of meth he buried
in the woods the night before. Worse still, it wasn't his bag to lose. He was hiding it
for a crime syndicate, including a member of the Hells Angels. What he didn't know
then, but he certainly knows now, is shortly before, the bag had been recovered by police
who were watching closely for whoever came to get it. And the cops had also already busted the biker
allegedly found digging in the park to retrieve another stash. The Mob Reporter here with news
of a curious gangland mule, a courier caught red-handed, dazed and confused on camera, and
with a shovel and dirty gardening gloves. He was part mole man, part bagman. Let me tell you about it
Christian Tachev, 25, worked at a vape store in Perth, Australia and as a personal trainer but
he still found time to work as a courier. His client, though, was a crime syndicate and the
goods he was moving were meth and money. This week Tachev was sent to prison — but before we get there
here he is a few years ago after his vape store was robbed, complaining — of all things — about
people under the influence. "....Obviously under the influence, probably meth or something..."
Tachev was sent GPS coordinates for secluded spots in rustic parks, where he would go and
variously bury and dig up duffel bags, at least some of those times allegedly at the behest of
a member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. The Australian Federal Police figured he was
burying dope and then delivering it by digging it back up and burying some of it elsewhere
for a client to unbury on their own. He was put under close surveillance. Here's how it all went
down. On March 18, 2021, investigators watched him drive to a wooded area in Queens Park, a suburb of
Perth in Western Australia. There he wandered into a private area of scrub carrying an empty blue bag
When he emerged the bag looked full. He then took that stuffed bag into the bush in Edgewater, a
suburb on the other side of Perth. He returned to his car without the bag. Later that day, as police
watched, another man walked into the Edgewater bush, got down and dug with his hands through a
patch of sandy dirt that had been covered with a tree branch, police say. A large cloth duffel bag
was pulled from the ground. As the man walked away with the bag, police moved in. And here's that man
under arrest. Police say the 53 year old man was a senior Hells Angels member and inside the bag,
police allege, were several sealed bags of white crystals. Testing showed it to be 10 kilos of meth
Investigators then retraced Tachev's earlier trip to the Queens Park woods
and searched the bush. There they dug up a duffel bag containing five kilos of meth
buried in a shallow hole. This is video of the retrieval
Officers removed the stash but placed the spot under surveillance
I suspect they put up trail cams, usually used to take photos of wildlife
What they caught the next day was pictures of a different kind of beast:
Tachev returning for his stash. He couldn't find it because it wasn't there. For 25 minutes he foraged
around, digging here and there, trying to figure out what was going on, wearing his gardening
gloves for digging. He left empty-handed. Maybe he thought he'd been robbed, like he once experienced
at his vape store. "...Thankfully that idiot that robbed us didn't see the camera right there
so we're gonna be posting that video footage out..." Oh the irony. Three weeks later, Tachev found
it was even worse. Here's Tachev being arrested, on April 6, 2021 — a video he's unlikely to post
on his social media. He was arrested after police watched him leave another bush site
When officers searched his car, they found he had A$17,355 dollars in cash inside a black backpack
along with a shovel and gardening gloves that were still covered in sand. Police say he had
just retrieved the cash by digging it up in a park. Police estimate Tachev's loads had a
street value of as much as $15 million Australian dollars. That's more than $11 million U.S. dollars
He went on to plead guilty to trafficking and proceeds of crime, while the biker remains before
the court, disputing the charges and allegations against him. On April 6, 2022, precisely one year
after his arrest, Tachev was sentenced to 11 years in prison, which seems like an okay
deal if you consider he was facing a maximum life sentence. Only now, according to the local
papers, he is fearful of the syndicate he worked for. Please join me on Patreon for exclusive
perks and bonus content. It's at patreon.com/TheMobReporter. Thanks for watching