Sydney brothers shared spoils of $220k a week cocaine syndicate, police allege
Two brothers who set up businesses registered to a housing commission unit are alleged by police to be members of a cocaine syndicate operating across Sydney’s south west. Nour Al-Khateib is currently in jail awaiting a court appearance, while police continue investigating his brother Kamal’s alleged involvement.
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APOLOGY TO TOUFIC TAHA: A photograph originally published with this article captioned “Brother Kamal Al-Khateib” was in fact an image of Toufic Taha who has not been charged with the offence. The Sunday Telegraph apologises to Mr Taha for the error and any hurt or embarrassment caused by publication of the photograph.
For a young man who ran his business from a housing commission unit, Nour Al-Khateib enjoyed the trappings of a lifestyle more in line with a Hollywood star.
The 22-year-old allegedly earned a share of up to $220,000 a week, wore designer clothes and entertained glamorous women on board luxury yachts.
Police allege it had nothing to do with legitimate business and everything to do with the Kingsgrove man being part of a sophisticated cocaine syndicate with his 23-year-old brother, Kamal Al-Khateib.
According to documents tendered in court, police allege the Al-Khateib brothers and two other men sold about 1kg of the drug each week — mostly cut down into multiple ounce quantities — in a syndicate that operated out of a network of apartments and safe houses rented with fraudulent documents.
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They are also accused of using a fleet of vehicles, including a Volkswagen Passat and a Toyota Hilux, to deliver the drugs.
Police allege the vehicles were registered in the names of friends and family and fitted out with hidden compartments to store drugs and cash.
The NSW Police Criminal Group Squad allegedly knew this because they discovered the apartment and safe house locations, broke into them and installed hidden cameras and recording devices, the documents said.
From there, police watched and listened as the syndicate members allegedly went to work.
By March 22, police had seen enough to lay charges and raided one of the safe houses on Pearce St, Peakhurst, the documents said.
Inside, they allegedly found Kingsgrove kitchen maker Malik Husseini and Adrian Cosmo Care, both 22, who were both injured when they tried to jump off the second floor balcony.
Both were arrested and taken to hospital under police guard.
By the end of the raids, detectives seized more than $350,000 cash, 1.4kg of a powder believed to be cocaine, a cache of other drugs, designer clothes, mobile phones and three vehicles.
Earlier that day, police arrested Nour Al-Khateib at another of the apartments on Canterbury Rd, Belmore.
Using the cameras hidden in the apartment, police allege they watched as Al-Khateib took a 1kg brick of cocaine, broke it in half and packaged the drug into smaller bags while putting the remaining half in a container in a kitchen drawer.
Police allege Al-Khateib returned later that day and put on white gloves before retrieving the remaining half of the cocaine brick, which he put in a backpack and left the apartment.
The officers arrested Al-Khateib at the end of the driveway in a Toyota Hilux.
Kamal Al-Khateib is yet to be charged and is understood to have fled the country and has continued living large overseas.
Police are still investigating Kamal Al-Khateib’s level of involvement but expect to charge him, a police spokeswoman said.
According to ASIC records, Nour Al-Khateib set up the company A1 Platinum Services in 2018, which ran out of a Housing Commission flat in Riverwood. Three years earlier, Kamal set up the business Unique Corp Services operating out of the same unit.
The arrests capped off a year-long investigation into the alleged drug syndicate, known as Strike Force Tippet.
Husseini was charged with two counts of dealing with the proceeds of crime, directing a criminal group and supplying a large commercial quantity of drugs.
Nour Al-Khateib is facing four charges, including supplying a large commercial quantity and a marketable quantity of drugs, dealing with the proceeds of crime and directing a criminal group.
Care was charged with dealing with the proceeds of crime, participating in a criminal group and supplying a large commercial quantity of drugs.
They faced Burwood Local Court on March 25 where no pleas were entered.
The other apartment and safe house allegedly used by the syndicate were located at McGill St, Lewisham and Lawrence St, Peakhurst.
On January 26, police watched on using the hidden camera inside the Lewisham apartment as Nour Al-Khateib allegedly prepared two ounces of cocaine into bags while his brother was also present in the apartment.
That evening, Kamal Al-Khateib was at an Australia Day party on board the Seven Star cruiser luxury yacht when it was raided by police from the Marine Area Command who seized cocaine in bags.
Police were patient in the investigation and careful not to let their targets know they were being watched.
On February 20, the investigators broke into the Belmore apartment and found 148g of cocaine, about $40,000 in cash and a money counting machine.
However, they left all of the items untouched and continued watching the three men for another month.
It paid off because on March 19, detectives watched inside the Belmore apartment when Nour Al-Khateib entered the unit and allegedly put cocaine on the kitchen bench while Husseini allegedly entered the bedroom before leaving with $50,000 cash.
On December 21, detectives went into the garbage room of the Lewisham unit block after they allegedly watched Care disposing of a garbage bag they thought might contain gloves and items used to package cocaine a day earlier.
The officers found the items but they had been rendered useless for forensic testing after being contaminated by other garbage.
Later that afternoon, an Asian male was filmed entering the apartment where he allegedly handed over cash to Nour Al-Khateib for about three ounces of cocaine after snorting a sample line and examined the quality using a drug test kit.
Nour Al-Khateib and Husseini will face Burwood Local Court on May 22 while Care will face the same court on May 15.
Originally published as Sydney brothers shared spoils of $220k a week cocaine syndicate, police allege
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