A group of Ambulance Victoria paramedics were misusing the powerful painkiller fentanyl.Credit:Paul Rovere
Just prior to the IBAC inquiry starting in November 2015,one paramedic admitted to deleting all text messages with a colleague who had stolen fentanyl from work and later died from an overdose.
They also deleted all messages that referred to IBAC.
"At the time it seemed like deleting links[with their colleague who had died] was an appropriate or normal thing to do,"the paramedic said.
Most of the 22 paramedics investigated worked in Barwon South West,a region taking in Geelong,Warrnambool and the Surf Coast,as part of Operation Tone.