If you take, hold, hide or spend money or property that came from illegal drugs — even if you never touched the drugs yourself — you can be charged. Lawyers call this "dealing with the proceeds of crime." In plain terms: the money is dirty, and the law treats moving it around as a crime of its own.
The whole idea in one picture
Follow the money
Drug cash doesn't stay as cash. It gets moved, hidden and spent — and that trail is exactly what investigators follow. Here's the shape of it, start to finish.
What counts as drug money or property?
It's anything of value that came from illegal drug activity — directly or after a few steps. That includes cash from selling drugs, but also things bought with that cash, like a car, a watch or a deposit on a house.
The drug activity behind it
Selling or supplying drugs
Growing or making drugs
Bringing drugs in or out of the country
Things that can get you charged
Holding or receiving drug cash
Putting large unexplained amounts into a bank
Buying a car, property or goods with it
Running it through a business to make it look clean
Important: you can be charged with this even if you're never charged over the drugs themselves — handling someone else's drug money is enough.
How a charge usually starts
These cases are normally built from a money trail. Investigators tend to look at:
Following the money
Bank alerts about unusual deposits (flagged by the government's money-tracking agency)
Cash found during a drug raid
Experts tracing where the money went
Things that don't add up
Phone messages and call records
Buying things you couldn't afford on your income
A business whose books don't make sense
What happens at court
Smaller matters are handled by the local court. Larger amounts, or anything tied to organised activity, go to a higher court. To find you guilty, the prosecution has to show three things:
You did something with the money or property — held it, moved it, spent it.
You knew or had a good idea it came from drugs.
The money or property really did come from a crime.
In serious cases, the prosecution can also ask the court to freeze your property so you can't sell or move it — or to take it for good.
Choose your state
Penalties where you are
New South Wales
NSW
Most serious cases — top of the scale
Up to 20 years in jail
This is the absolute maximum, kept for the most serious organised cases.
Read this as a ceiling, not a forecast. Maximum sentences are rarely handed down. Everyday cases usually end well below the top figure — often with much shorter terms, or no jail at all for smaller, first-time matters.
Your money & property
Which court
Common defences
Every case is different, but these are the kinds of arguments a lawyer might use:
You didn't know
You had no real idea the money came from drugs.
It was clean money
The cash or property came from honest, lawful income.
You didn't deal with it
You never actually controlled, moved or spent it.
You were forced
Someone pressured or threatened you into being involved.
Read this first
This is general information, not legal advice
This page explains how these charges generally work — it can't tell you what will happen in your case. Penalties shown are the legal maximums, which courts rarely reach. If you've been charged, talk to a criminal lawyer before deciding anything.
Criminal lawyers
Hiring a Criminal Lawyer is Essential if You’ve Been Charged
While we don’t provide legal advice—as every case is unique and only a qualified lawyer is permitted to do so—we’ll do our best to guide you with relevant general information. If we’re unable to assist, we can refer your query to a criminal lawyer.
