March 5, 2021 *Update
Drugs, cash and items bought with money raised by sexually exploited young women were allegedly found in a Brisbane property where a man accused of running a slave ring was arrested.
Matthew James Markcrow, 35, has been accused of drugging and recruiting four women aged 17 to 24, also tattooing their bodies to indicate they were his “property”.
He was arrested at a property in Mount Gravatt East on Thursday.
Police bodycam footage of the arrest, seen above, shows a small bag of white powder and a pile of $50 notes being seized by officers.
“When we did the search, we located drugs, covert recordings of the females with clients and a variety other property which looked like it was the proceeds of the crime,” said Juliet Hancock, from the Queensland Police’s Prostitution Enforcement Taskforce.
“Obviously (that property was) from the money that had been earned by those females.”
Markcrow faces 10 charges, including conducting a business involving servitude, conducting unlawful prostitution, possessing drugs and tainted property, and breaching privacy.
Police allege his victims were given stupefying drugs, subject to controlled living, financial and work conditions.
He and his co-accused Crystal Marie Sawyer, 23, appeared in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Friday charged after a four-month investigation.
Sawyer is charged with three offences, including conducting a business of unlawful prostitution.
Markcrow allegedly used social media to find the women.
An image on Markcrow’s Facebook shows four people with tattoos of the words “property of Matt M”.
He allegedly targeted victims who were “vulnerable” due to their age and “the fact they’d had some issues within their family unit,” Detective Inspector Hancock said.
“I’ve been a police officer for 30 years. I’ve not seen this type of offending before,” she said.
“It’s pretty hard to shock police. This is confronting.
“I think a lot of people would think this is happening overseas. This has happened in Brisbane.”