Alleged cocaine ring busted in series of Christmas Day drug raids
EXCLUSIVE: Police allege the combined total of cocaine seized after they smashed a Sydney drug syndicate is the largest haul in Australia’s history, with 15 men, including a former NRL star and Bondi cafe king arrested during Christmas Day raids.
NSW
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Police say the combined total of cocaine seized after they smashed a Sydney-based drug syndicate is the largest haul in Australia’s history.
Officers first pounced on members of the alleged gang during a series of Christmas and Boxing Day raids which resulted in the arrest of 15 men — including a former rugby league player and Bondi cafe king.
The arrests come after a two and a half year top-secret investigation by the NSW Police Drug Squad and Australian Federal Police which targeted commercial fishermen who were allegedly using fishing trawlers to move cocaine from Chile to Australia.
Detectives attached to Operation Okesi pounced on a number of the alleged drug traffickers on Christmas night and seized about 500kg of cocaine from an inflatable boat as it pulled up to a boat ramp at Brooklyn on the NSW Central Coast.
Police will allege the group used a Sydney Fish Market-based fishing trawler called Dalrymple. This boat was allegedly taken out to sea where it met with a “mother ship” which had travelled from South America.
It will be alleged the group were trying to import another 600kg of cocaine to Australia but a $197 million shipment was intercepted by the French Navy off the coast of Tahiti in March.
The multi-agency operation involved the NSW Police Drug Squad, Marine Area Command and Tactical Operations Unit along with the Australian Federal Police and its Specialist Response Group.
The joint operation is also responsible for seizing 32kg of heroin worth about $12 million in Fiji in 2014.
On Thursday Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Chris Sheehan described the alleged drug ring as “selfish” and “brazen”.
“They were determined to exploit some of the most vulnerable members in our community,” he said.
“The syndicate we have dismantled over the past couple of days was a robust, resilient and determined syndicate.”
NSW Police Force Commissioner Mark Jenkins said more than 100 officers worked over Christmas and Boxing Day to bring the alleged drug ring down.
He said had the group managed to bring the tonne of cocaine to Australia, the effects would have been “devastating”.
“It’s quite a chuck out of the cocaine economy.”
Mr Sheehan said officers were confident “the entire group has been taken out”.
“We have ongoing inquiries, particularly in South America and other parts of the world, to look at who they were dealing with to bring those drugs from those countries to Australia.”
One of the men targeted in the sting is former Roosters player John Tobin. The 57-year-old, who lives in Manly, played 125 first-grade games in the 1970s and ’80s. Police also arrested eastern suburbs identity Darren Mohr, who used to own a Bondi Rescue HQ cafe which was run by lifesavers from the hit television show Bondi Rescue.
Police will allege one of the players involved in the alleged cocaine ring is commercial fisherman Joseph Pirrello, 63, who made headlines across the country when he was the managing director of Seafish Tasmania, the company that brought the controversial super trawler Abel Tasman to Australian waters in 2012.
The 143m Dutch-owned ship, formerly called Margiris, was brought to Australia to catch an 18,000 tonne quota of fish but after public outcry the then Environment Minister Tony Burke banned the ship from fishing.
Ten of the members arrested had their matters mentioned before a series of Sydney courts over the past three days but The Daily Telegraph has been unable to publish details of the case or the identities of those involved until now due to suppression orders which have since lapsed.
Police will allege the group conspired to import five shipments of cocaine and heroin to Australia.
The charges laid against the group include conspiracy to import a border-controlled drug and importing a border-controlled drug.
Five of the alleged drug syndicate members who were arrested on Christmas Day and spent the night at Surry Hills police station before their Boxing Day court appearance were Sydney men Stuart Ayrton, 54; Jonathan Paul Cooper, 29; Reuben John Dawe, 41; Simon Peter Spero, 56, and Tobin.
On Tuesday, Robert Lipton, who lives in Double Bay, and Pirrello appeared before Parramatta Bail Court. Yesterday Mohr, Frank D’Agastino and Benjamin Allan Sara all had their cases mentioned before Parramatta Local Court. None of the men involved applied for bail and their bail was formally refused. All of the men are expected to appear before Central Local Court in March but a number are likely to make bail applications in the next few weeks.
Mr Jenkins said the role the community could play in tackling illicit drug supply could not be underestimated. “This job started with just a thread of information to the NSWPF’s Drug Squad two and a half years ago,” he said. “That thread has helped us keep more than a tonne of illegal drugs out of NSW.”
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