Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised
Dive into the thrilling saga of Charlotte Lindström, a story where love meets the underworld. Witness her journey from a socialite to a key player in a drug lord’s empire, and the ultimate betrayal that flips her world upside down.
A tale of love, crime, and redemption.
this is a love story but don’t expect a happily ever after, not when it entangles on of this country’s biggest drug lords and his young lover.
blond beautiful and bloody -minded prepared to calmly organize the execution of two innocent men.
it’s a soap opera like saga spanning seven years love letters secretly recorded phone calls and arrests on a crowded city street,jail sentences and betrayal.
it’s the story of charlotte’s lindström
charlotte lindström came from a middle class suvurb in sweden in stockholm sweden
her parents would later say ,she had no particular ambition,she just wanted to be special.
when charlotte was 19 she came to australia with a group of school friends and met Steven Spaliviero an older man by 18 years.
stephen and charlotte’s love story began when she was working on the door at a gentlemen’s club that stephen owned.
charlotte had expensive tastes and stephen funded her love with all things designer,within months the pair was living gothether in a waterfront auburb of sydney.
then two years into their romance Steven Spaliviero had made it onto the police radar all because of a phone call ,not to police but to the fire brigade
the fire brigade is being called to an industrial real estate in the western sydney suburb of riversone.
police would later discover the mystery caller is Steven Spaliviero
but Steven Spaliviero is not finish yet ,he tries again to divert the fire brigade, this time with a fake blaze.
but it’s too late ,the fire brigade turned up and still fearing there’s fire inside they use some bolt cutters and cut through the padlock on the gate and broke into the factory .
no fire but something Steven Spaliviero didn’t want the fire brigade or police to ever see,they found what they believed to be a drug lab.
and it was enrmous ,one of the most sophisticated extensive setups police had ever seen.
hose vessels would be used to mix the substances to make drugs, there were three 300 iter stainless steel vessels in a large 78O liter vessel.
there were 250 liter beer kegs on the ground, with special manufactured condensers attached to them that were undergoing distillation at the time so the drug was being distill.
but, it’s what police are about to find upstairs that will really suprise them…
on the ground was some electric blankets covered in orange plastic,on top of the orange plastic was this brown powder which turned out to be MDMA or ecstasy
six kilograms of pure exstasy, bag after bag of drugs packed as evidence.
police are far from over.
on the room next to the orange plastic were three tablet presses ,one of them had som powder in one of the hoppers so it was ready to press some tablets out .
this is where the ecstasy pills will be pressed and stamped.
in the vessels downstairs the drugs would be brewed,the ecstasy, would be dried on the orange plastic before being fleshed out with other chemicals and pressed into a tablet form.
and the amounts of drugs are massive , all up police find 4O kilograms of pure ecstasy that would be worth 127 million dollars.
it takes police two package up all the evidence including any clues .
police confiscate a pair of louis vuitton shoes and a gaz mask, these itemes will later come crucial to the drug investigtion, one of the biggest australia has ever seen…..
then police find a lease for the peoperty, the signature of the lease was john walker….
john walker is an alias it’s not long before police get a tip off ,the man using the alias is in fact Steven Spaliviero..
over the next 12 months detectives desperately trying to get evidence on steven, they tap his phones,gather intelligence on him ,they know where he’s living and with whom ,his lover chaarlotte lindström.
detectives also go to a company that makes the equipment found in the lab to see if anyone can identify Steven Spaliviero as the drug lord.
a number of workers at the machinery factory remember selling the same equpment that was in the drug lab to a man called john matthews.
the police showed the witnesses list of photos asking them to pick john mathews and they make their selection they identified Steven Spaliviero as john matthews
the workers from the machinery company are prepared to testifie against Steven Spaliviero,they become the key witnesses in the drug case.
their evidence could see Steven Spaliviero put away for life.
with that police get a warrant to search his apartment in inner sidney, at the time they executed the warrant he wasn’t there .he was fishing .
but was does charlotte really knows is there something to find ,something she doesn’t know about.
somewhere in this suburban apartment could be the clue the clue to tie Steven Spaliviero to the biggest ecstasy lab in australian history.
police are in the middle of a search of an apartment in inner sydney it belongs to Steven Spaliviero.
police have tapped his phone they believe Spaliviero is responsible for a multi -million dollar drug laboratory found in sydney’s western.
Steven Spaliviero is away ,fishing in north queensland,the only person home is his 20 year old fianceev charlotte lindström.
and now she is watching as police turned their love nest upside down looking any proofs her romeo is a drug lord .
in particular antything that links steven to the drug lab at riverstone or the alias that were used.
steven and charlott have expensive tastes ,that could be just pocket money.
detectives continue to go through the house moving into the bedroom checking underneath the mattress,everywhere police go charlotte follow shadowing their search …then under the television cabinet .a box.
there’s nothing inside but the box itself is a find for the police,the boxes for a pair of size 9 louis vuitton men’s shoes.
police have seen these shoes like these before remember ? from the multi -million dollar drug lab.
police are having those choes forensically examined hoping to get DNA from them DNA that could bring down Steven Spaliviero .
police have failed to find in the apartement any evidence that Steven Spaliviero has used the aliases.
but police do have enough ro arrest steven ,they have the two witnesses ,the worker from the machinery company hwo have prepared to testify against Steven Spaliviero and their evidence would link him to the lab.
the very next day Steven Spaliviero knowing that the police are nor open to negotiations turns himself in. he is arrested.
Steven Spaliviero is charged with manufacturing a large commercial quantity of prohibited drug ,he will have to stay in silver water jail until his next court hearing.
the most damning evidence police have is the testimony of two witnesses.
the workers from the company that sold the equipment police found in the laboratory,they are prepared to identify Spaliviero
as being the man who bought the drug making equipment and their evidence could put him away for life.
Steven Spaliviero is in constant contact with his fiancee charlotte lindström but this drug case is about to take a massive turn .
a prisoner has information for police , he claims the lives of the two witnesses are now in jeopardy ,the prisoner claims a hit is going to be carried out by two men from victoria
1) aconvicted armed robber who was sentenced to four years jail the other a petty thief.
the prisoner goes on to tell police the hit -men have been building a dossier on the victims,collecting photos and documents including a map he claimed had been written by Steven Spaliviero.
it’s an explosive claim and with two lives possibly at risk ,police put the machinery company where the two men work under surveillance.
the threat seems real , Steven Spaliviero is still in prison and he knows every phone call he makes is monitored and used codes.
from those calls police learned charlotte is meating up with one of the men she believes will do the hitch and police are watching.
she’s with one of two men who she believes will murder two witnesses prepared to testify against her boyfriend Steven Spaliviero
his accused of being a drug lord responsible for 127 million dollar drug laboratory but now there’s been a change of plan .
the hit has been taking too long, charlotte believes she’s found a new hit man someone else to carry out the killings and no longer needs the services of the two victorian men .
the pair were paid in advance given $100,000 in that white shopping bag is seventy thousand a refund.
even though the victorian men are no longer involved,police are convinced there is still a plan to murder the two witnesses.
with the lives of two men on the line investigators can’t take any chances, they keep listening to all the conversations everything charlotte says.
through her phone detective’s got a lot of information, encoded messages from steven
in one conversaton submitted as evidence ,steven and charlotte talk about solicitor as they call him.
now that is one of the codes charlotte would later tell the court she believed solicitor ment hit man.
but without knowing for sure what codes the pair are using it’s still not enough for officers.
to make an arrest they need to be entirely sure they must be patients ,they listen to conversation after conversation until finally this …..
she seaid in the cemetery so she wanted them killed.
police have no doubt charlotte is conspiring to kill the men and the enormity of organising the hit is taking it’s toll on the young socialite
she was very naive,charlotte is clearly distraught she has crossed the line.
police have a plan what happens in the next 24 hours will change charlotte’s life forever.
for months ,police have been watching and listening as charlotte linsaröm plans a double murder the target s two witnesses who daming evidence could send her boyfriend to jail for life
it’s mid morning in sydney ,charlotte has no idea she’s being watched or what’s about to happen.
charlott lindström arrested handcuffed in broad daylight , the well -heeled swedish beauty accused of organizing a cold -blooded killing.
four years after they first met and charlotte’s blinded love and willingness to do anything for steven has led to her arrest
back home in sweden her parents have no idea what’s been going on , charlotte didn’t even tell them steven was in jail.
charlotte knew what would have happened they never liked steven and her parents would demand she come for for lovestruck charotte that wasn’t going to happen she kept up the glamorous socialite facade and just one week before her public arrest charlotte said to her mum about her new job in an upmarket resturant.
it was a journalist who told the lindström’s their little girl had been arrested.
with charlotte in custody police hit her fiance Steven Spaliviero cell for any evidence linking him to the planned killings
in his cell they find photographs of charlotte, memories of a life now so far awat for them both.
detectives also informed that they had arrested charlotte lindström.
while police finish up with steven in his cell other detectives are with his girlfriend charlotte she’s been searched at the police station and now detectives have taken her back to the apartment she once shared with steven.
to search for any further evidence.
first more money,next the bedroom not only our police looking for evidence that charlotte was organizing the contract kill, they’re searching for anything that could still ties steven to the multi -million dollar ecstasy lab.
charlotte is still watching on as police find a book the name in the book is a match for the fake company name that steven used on the lease for the multi.million dollar drug lab.
next -private declarations of love.
the love letter is now a police exhibit ,charlotte has to sit and watch as police dissect her home and her love life.
next ,they find a letter from her fiance steven ,it was written by steven on a flight back from sweden after meeting charlotte’s family.
it was penned before he was arrested for the massive drug lab,before charlotte orgianized the killings,it was written with the intention they would live happily ever after .
but even love has its limits.charlotte knowing she faces prison time agrees to betray her lover .
revealed to police intimate details of stevens million- dollar drug enteprise.
from socialite to criminal to informative.
on busy street in sydney a young socialite charlotte lindström has been dramatically arrested by police
she was plotting to have two witnesses killed they’re going to testify against her boyfriend suspected drug lord Steven Spaliviero .
charlotte pleads guilty and while awaiting sentencing is jailed , her boyfriend steven and the two alleged contract killers from melbourne are also charged with conspiring to kill the two witnesses.
Steven Spaliviero and the two victorian men plead not guilty and go to trial the jury has played footage of charlotte organising the contract kill.
but steven maintains he was just trying to discredit the witnesses, dig up dirt on them not have them killed ,he is adamant .
charlotte acted alone.
a jury agrees after 48 hours of deliberations Steven Spaliviero and the two men from melbourne are found not guilty of organizing a contract killing.
Spaliviero lawyer issues a statement that while charlotte acted on her own steven acknowledged she was motivated by love but police are not finished yet.
Spaliviero is still accused of being a druglord, there’s still the matter of the multi -million dollar drug lab and they have damning new evidence to bring him down.
charlotte has committed the ultimate act of betrayal,she’s done a deal with the police to give evidence against her former lover in the hope of a lighter sentence.
charlotte will spill the beans on stevens massive drug operation and not just the ecstasy lab at riverstone.
handcuffed charlotte takes police to a number of different sites that at one time had been used by Spaliviero .
and yet another clandestine drug lab location.
every minutes of footage is damning evidence against one of the biggest drug lords in australia .
police are lining up all their evidence to bring to bring down Steven Spaliviero
charlotte’s testimony, the evidence that the two witnesses that charlotte was planning to have killed and now breakthrough,just when it couldn’t get any worse for Steven Spaliviero ,the fresh evidence that even he didn’t see coming.
swedish model charlotte lindström is in jail for her own safety she’s in special protection in a menäs prison in sydney, awaiting sentencing facilitating the murder of two men .
on the other side of town in another jail is her one-time fiancee Steven Spaliviero
he’s up on drug charges for a 127 million dollar ecstasy lab and police and the police now have the final pieces of puzzle, the ultimate proof t Steven Spaliviero was the drug lord responsible for the massive clandestine laboratory.
remember the designer shoes that police found at the lab ?
a sample of his DNA was taken at that time to use as a comparison to some of the profiles that they’d found inside some of the items at riverstone.
it came back as a positive identification of Steven Spaliviero.
they determined that mr Spaliviero had the same DNA profile as the DNA recovered from the louis vuitton shoe.
the police also tested the gas mask which had t Steven Spaliviero DNA on the inside,further analysis on that respitator as a result of the DNA being found and in the filters attached to the outside of the respirator they discoveed ecstasy was present in those filters
the only way that residue could be found in the filters was if he was standing over physically standing over, the manufacture process or the reaction whilst it was cooking.
police had everything they need to convict the drug lord ,they had the phone conversation from triple O on the night of the fire at the drug lab ,they had the shoes, the mask , they have the testimony of two witnesses from a company that sells the equipment found in the lab .
and they have the evidence from charlotte lindström. with such damning evidence Steven Spaliviero pleads guilty to manufacturing a large commercial quantity of prohibited drug ,he was sentence to more than 16 years jail
charlotte called off her engagement pleaded guilry to organizing the contract kill of those two witnesses.
but in a bid for less time in prison she testified against Steven Spaliviero.
her giving evidence againgst him is the only time that she’s had a chance to see him since she was arrested back in 2007.
charlotte also goes to court for her own sentencing for conspiring to kill two men.
today a supreme court judge said ;
just as rothman said lindström state of mind at the time caused her to romanticize the relationship with her boyfriend and because of that she wasn’t fully aware of the consequences of her actions .
charlotte lindström spent three years behind bars ,charlotte 25 now , she went into jail at 22 she’s done three years ,impressively thee are very normal middle -class swedish family ,absolutely rocked by this but they said it either destroys you or it makes you stronger .
with her parents by her side charlotte went straight from priaon to sydney airport and flew home to sweden.