Heartbreak High star Putu Winchester-Stanton is one of seven men who has been charged with drug offences during an ongoing police investigation in the coastal NSW hotspot Byron Bay.
The former actor, who starred as a surfer named Pongo on
Home and Away and more notably as class clown Dennis on the iconic Heartbreak High, was arrested at a Mullumbimby home last month, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Winchester-Stanton in the credits for Heartbreak High. Source: Netflix
According to NSW Police, in October 2020 officers from the Northern Region North Coast Region Enforcement Squad (RES) launches two separate investigations via strike forces Strike Force Kelly and Strike Force Tulipa to “investigate the supply of cocaine in the Byron Bay, Mullumbimby and Bangalow area.”
02:04 EDT, 11 May 2021
A soap star accused of masterminding a Byron Bay cocaine syndicate once spent time in a Papua New Guinea prison on drug charges after a surfing trip went wrong.
Putu Winchester-Stanton was one of seven men arrested after police raided homes across the New South Wales far north coast on April 22.
The 44-year-old tattooed surfer has remained behind bars since his arrest and was formally refused bail again in Byron Bay Local Court on Monday.
Winchester-Stanton was born in Bali, raised in Bondi and moved to Byron after his big break starring in Heartbreak High came to an end in 1999.