Operation Ironside cocaine busts expose links between two alleged ‘drug plots’

Two high-profile alleged drug plots have been uncovered by the AN0M sting, with links to a Comanchero-linked crime syndicate. See the video.

Exclusive: A secret link has been revealed between two high-profile alleged drug importation plots, following the arrest of three men alleged to be part of a Comanchero-linked criminal syndicate.

The charges follow the Australian Federal Police’s sting operation involving the use of a Trojan horse encrypted app known as AN0M.

Daniel Eahab Jaafar, 40, of Sydney, James Bouzianis, 48, of Allawah, and Maher Aouli, 40, of Sydney have been charged over an alleged plot to get $700,000 worth of cocaine into Australia via the postal system.

It can be revealed Aouli has also been charged over an alleged plot to import $64 million worth of cocaine into Australia via a secret compartment in a cargo ship.

Sydney man Daniel Jaafar, 40, has been charged with importing cocaine and knowingly participating in a criminal group.

The men have all appeared in court in Sydney on charges which allege they are members of a syndicate which was involved in organising several attempted drug importations.

Jaafar is charged with knowingly or recklessly directing a criminal group, and importing marketable quantities of a border controlled drug.

The charges relate to 2.1kg of cocaine which police allege was shipped from the United States and was intended to be delivered to a car workshop in south Sydney called ProWorx.

The drugs, allegedly worth about $700,000, were intercepted by the Australian Border Force on February 22.

Bouzianis was arrested in relation to the same matter in February and charged with importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug, supply a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug and possessing a prohibited drug.

Aouli was arrested in June and charged with importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug and knowingly or recklessly directing a criminal group.

He is also facing the same two charges in relation to the alleged plot to import 216 kilograms of cocaine, alleged to be worth $64 million, to Australia via a hidden compartment on the fruit juice tanker Ouro Do Brasil.

Some of 216 kilograms of cocaine, alleged to be worth $64 million, smuggled into Australia via a hidden compartment on the fruit juice tanker Ouro Do Brasil. Picture: AFP

Hoang Anh Le (left) and husband Julian Lee. Picture: Facebook

Acting on information obtained by the Australian Federal Police from the secret police encrypted app known as AN0M, Belgian police swooped on the vessel in June when it pulled into the port of Ghent and allegedly found the cocaine hidden in inside the ship’s sea chest, which is below the waterline on the ship’s hull.

As a result of the seizure, 41-year-old Julian Lee, a Bondi fitness instructor and husband of Insta-famous pole dancer Hoang Ang Lee – aka Dirdy Birdy – was charged with directing a criminal group and leading a conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of drugs.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Ms Lee.

Bondi fitness instructor Julian Lee. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Flavio Brancaleone

Police will claim the cocaine was to be brought ashore in Newcastle, and that Mr Lee had allegedly been making arrangements for a team of divers to extract the drugs from underneath the ship. It is alleged Lee is also associated with the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang.

The AN0M sting of the century is the largest covert police operation in Australian history.

It involved police planting an encrypted device and app – developed by an FBI informant and monitored by the AFP – into the underworld, where police were able to intercept and read the millions of messages sent.

So far, 290 people have been charged in Australia with a total of 728 offences.

Originally published as Operation Ironside cocaine busts expose links between two alleged ‘drug plots’