McDonalds fork feud and mistaken al-Qaeda attack almost ruined AFP’s Haklander drug cartel bust
THE nation’s biggest drug cartel bust may never have happened over a feud with forks at McDonalds and a mistaken case of an imminent al-Qaeda attack.
- Nine-year quest to smash drug ring
- Sydney cafe hub of major global drug cartel
- Mark Standen: the fall of NSW’s top drug cop
- Top cop Standen was rotten to the core
EXCLUSIVE
AUSTRALIA’S biggest drug cartel bust may never have come about with a feud with forks in a McDonalds in Bali and a mistaken case of an imminent terror attack by al-Qaeda in Sydney almost derailing the drugs operation.
As revealed Thursday the Australian Federal Police, leading investigations across 14 countries, has brought down one of the world’s biggest drug syndicates after a nine-year operation pursuing three of the groups principals around the world.
YOU PAID CARTEL KINGPIN’S LEGAL FEES
The Netherlands-based Haklander cartel was one of the biggest global traffickers of the illegal drug ecstasy, making multiple mulit-tonne exports worth $180 million to this country alone.
But the plot to make large-scale traffics to Australia was almost derailed and abandoned after a series of incidents involving cartel members turning on each other and then the accidental discovery of one of their shipments.
The plot to wholesale target Australia began in September 2001, although multiples small runs were made by the group throughout the 1990s.
Police investigation notes obtained by News Corp Australia reveal about this time there was already internal friction over moneys being paid and received from ecstasy exports to the United States, largely from a group of Orthodox Jews on the east coast.
Within a few months the first shipment had arrived in Sydney and one of the cartel’s members, known as Lex, sent to the city to oversee the arrival, considered ripping off the lot to sell to a Chinese cartel based in Chinatown, who offered him $1 million in 30 minutes if he handed over a small percentage of the consignment.
When his bosses in Holland found out about the potential double cross they summonsed him to Bali for a meeting at the airport’s McDonalds.
Lex travelled to Bali and staked out the joint fearing the meeting would go “nasty” and noticed two Indonesian hitmen, who worked part-time for Haklander turned up and he fled. The meeting was rescheduled for the next day.
The cartel principals Ron Haklander and Peter Dekker turned up with four other henchmen and Lex admitted he had taken “a couple of handfuls” of the pills but was not going to take it all. During a heated slanging match the men dramatically armed themselves with forks, posted a guard on the door as they threatened to attack each other before the group agreed Lex could have a second chance. The cartel then went to the Sari Club in Kuta to line up more wholesale customers in that country and Australia.
Things were to get worse. By December 2002 four Dutch members of the cartel were working in Sydney such was the amount of successful ecstasy operations when the police accidentally discovered one drug haul hidden in pipes in a van, after being called amid fears the pipes were bombs planted by al-Qaeda. Three of the cartel heard the report on Sydney radio and immediately shut down operations. A penthouse stash house apartment in Potter Street in Waterloo was abandoned still with personal belongings, as were cars and a room at the Bondi Hotel where one cartel member would stash tens of thousands of dollars hidden in an ironing board cover in his room.
Two banks accounts under false names opened in Bondi still exist and remain untouched and unidentified but other cash stashes at Circular Quay, a drugs house in Manly and a storage shed of drugs were found.
Millions of children skirt social media age restrictions
Research from Australia’s eSafety Commission has found 1.3 million children under the age of 13 are active on social media, despite age restrictions.
‘A win for everyone’: Retirement now in 1.2m new homes target
Empty homes will be freed up and thousands more units built after the Albanese government issued 11th hour approval to add retirement villages to its 1.2m new homes target from July 1.