Drug charges: Accused dealers come from all walks of life to service Sydney’s habit

BANK employees, a high-achieving stock broker, a once-promising football star and a chemist shelf stacker — all have been pursued over a flurry of cocaine dealing in the city.

Ali Yousseff, 30, from Wolli Creek, was charged on November 18 with drug supply.

BIG bank employees, a high-achieving stockbroker, IT consultants: These are some of the white-collar workers allegedly satisfying inner-city Sydney’s unquenchable thirst for cocaine.

For the past two months, police from Strike Force Northrop have tracked drug dealers zipping around the city, dropping off drugs to corporate high-fliers outside pubs, clubs and office blocks.

In just 60 days, police targeting the CBD and its fringes charged about 40 alleged cocaine dealers or users in an operation that unmasked the thriving city narcotics trade.

Many of those charged were ­allegedly supplementing respectable jobs in the city by delivering drugs in their lunch hours or after work. Others had customers visit their offices during work hours or picked them up in cars, where ­alleged deals were made in secret.

Danielle Gabris, 26, from Wentworth Point, was charged on November 29 with drug supply.

About 470g of cocaine, which sells for about $300 a gram, was seized, mostly by undercover cops posing as customers.

About a dozen syndicates all using similar methods were targeted in the crackdown by the Redfern Regional Enforcement Squad.

One group involving Danielle Gabris, 26, and Hayra Pasic, 25, who worked together at one of the big four banks, allegedly supplied ­cocaine in the city after-hours.

Their customers would call a central number — dubbed dial-a-dealer by police — and the women then dropped off the drugs at an agreed location after they left work for the day, police claim.

Eric Febrian, 21, was charged on November 16.

Mohammed Halwani, 24, charged November 25.

In another case, court documents described how a car with drug suppliers picked up a woman not far from her office in Barangaroo on November 10. The car drove for less than a minute before the woman left the car and made her way towards King St Wharf, where police ­arrested her with one gram of ­cocaine in her purse.

IT consultants Ashkan Rafiq and Alli Amtar allegedly operated during business hours, inviting clients to their office building on Castle­reagh St where cocaine deals were made on different levels. When police searched the GlobalX office where they worked on December 1, they allegedly found up to 10g of ­cocaine concealed in containers.

Rafiq, 41, and Amtar, 28, who are both on bail facing drug supply charges, have since been sacked.

A 31-year-old stockbroker from a nearby firm was charged with supplying drugs on the same day.

Ben Darcy on a recent holiday in Thailand.

Tiarne Foster, 26, from Allawah, charged on November 17.

Former Sydney Roosters junior Ben Darcy was also caught up in the sting but was allegedly acting as a solo cocaine supplier in Paddington and Woollahra.

Uber driver Asfia Akhtar, 25, was charged after allegedly dropping off cocaine during shifts around the city.

However, not all the alleged couriers were high-fliers. Runners included the unemployed and teenage boys.

Eric Febrian, 21, a casual Coles worker who lives in a CBD apartment building overlooking the city, was among the alleged solo suppliers charged during the investigation. He told police he dealt cocaine because “he needed some extra money”, ­according to court documents.

COMPUTER WHIZKIDS CHARGED WITH MASSIVE COKE DEALS

Chief Detective Inspector Stuart Bell said: “It is amazing in this investigation, the backgrounds of people are so diverse from corporate all the way down to the unemployed.

“The demand for cocaine is high and these people are seeking to profit from this drug use.”

Two other syndicates police identified were predominantly made up of young men from Sydney’s southwest who began their city ­delivery routes from mid-afternoon.

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Ali Yousseff and his partner ­Tiarne Foster were arrested in ­dramatic scenes in O’Connell St in mid-November in front of bemused city workers. They were both charged with drug supply and possession and participating in a criminal group.

A week later on a Friday night in the CBD, police pounced on a separate syndicate, arresting married­ ­father-of-one Mohammed Halwani in Bond St.

Halwani, 24, from Bankstown, who displays on social media a penchant for fast cars, Sydney Harbour boat parties and motorbikes, was ­allegedly supplying cocaine in a syndicate with his mates.

Lawyer Ahmed Dib, who represents Halwani as well as several others who were accused, said his clients were extremely happy to have been granted bail.

“At the moment they are going to try and live their lives and work hard as the legal proceedings continue,” he said.

Meanwhile, the customers, some of whom sheepishly pleaded guilty to cocaine possession in court this week, worked for major organisations including insurance firms and global construction companies.

Police have not ruled out further arrests.