How virtually unknown Campbelltown crook ruled Sydney’s underworld as drug kingpin

Drug kingpin Darren Rispen loved three things: fast cars, beautiful women — and not working for a living. Unlike many Sydney underworld figures, Rispen did not have a long criminal record and was virtually unknown to the authorities.

• ‘Most wanted’ Darren Rispen arrested in Nelson Bay
• Bail fail lets accused drug lord take off

Drug kingpin Darren Rispen loved three things: fast cars, beautiful women — and not working for a living.

Unlike many Sydney underworld figures, Rispen did not have a long criminal record and was virtually unknown to the authorities.

Police comb a US-registered Swearingen Merlin 3 twin-turbo prop plane at the Illawarra Airport, Albion Park, in 2014 as part of their investigations. It was believed to have flown from the US via the Philippines. Picture: AAP

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Last month Rispen was jailed for a maximum of 15 years after pleading guilty to five counts of supplying a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug and one count of cultivating a commercial quantity of a prohibited plant.

Police issued this photo when searching for Darren Rispen.

Rispen’s arrest in Nelson Bay.

But when police began looking into the drug scene in Sydney’s southwest in 2013, the major target was a well-known Middle Eastern crook with bikie connections named Yousseff Sammak.

“We thought Rispen was just a runner or minor player — no one had heard of him,” Detective Superintendent Jason Weinstein, who spent years chasing him, told The Daily Telegraph.

“But we soon established he was the syndicate head of an organisation which was a lot bigger than first suspected.”

Supt Weinstein was the officer in charge of the initial drug operation that revealed Rispen had, in just a couple of years, gone from an unknown petty crook to the head of an international drug cartel dealing in millions of dollars.

“The intel reports on him did not match the size and scope of the criminality he was involved with,’’ the detective said.

Darren Rispen’s girlfriend in Nelson Bay was shocked to discover he was a wanted man. Picture: NSW Police

At first Rispen was only growing a bit of marijuana and was involved in low-level distribution of ice and cocaine in Sydney’s west, particularly his hometown of Campbelltown.

But by the time police unravelled his operation, the red-headed electrical technician was living in a $1500-a-week city apartment and leasing luxury BMWs and Mercedes-Benzs to get around.

He also regularly dined at The Star casino, where he often played in poker tournaments, and regularly flew to the Gold Coast with his stripper girlfriend Leanne Morgan. She played no part in his criminal enterprise.

An officer reveals a secret compartment in a bathroom vanity belonging to Darren Rispen. Picture: NSW Police

Cash hidden in the bathroom vanity. Picture: NSW Police

Using false names, he leased cars and warehouses, which he used to grow or store drugs, after paying alcoholics and junkies $1000 for their Medicare and drivers’ licences to create his new identities.

In June 2014, after one of his runners was arrested and texted Rispen, he immediately booked a flight to Bali along with Morgan.

“We believe he used that trip to see if his passport was red-flagged and, when nothing happened, he returned a few days later and amped up his operations,’’ Supt Weinstein said.

But by July of the same year police had enough to arrest him on local drug-supplying charges and he was granted $200,000 bail.

Just two months later police had compiled an even more extensive brief and laid another 26 charges relating to gun and drug running.

But again the poker player’s luck seemed to be holding and he was granted bail — this time for the much larger amount of $550,000.

Cash found at Rispen’s Nelson Bay property. Picture: NSW Police

Cash hidden in the pantry at Rispen’s property. Picture: NSW Police

Rispen could feel the walls closing in and fled, failing to appear in court in December 2014. Supt Weinstein said over the next two years there were sightings of the drug chief all over Australia but they ultimately led to nothing.

“There was a strong belief that he had gone overseas but we started to get information that he had stayed local,’’ he said.

Then, in July 2017, after nearly 2½ years on the run, Rispen was caught in Nelson Bay.

He had tried to blend in — adopting an assumed name, growing a beard and meeting an unsuspecting local who became his girlfriend.

She had no idea he was among Australia’s most wanted.

“(The woman was) ‘absolutely gobsmacked to say the least when it all came out’,” Judge Hatzistergos said at Rispen’s sentencing hearing.