The Snitch: COVID-19 strands cocaine dealer in Sydney’s Silverwater Jail
US cocaine kingpin turned star witness in the Sydney trial of a criminal lawyer is now stuck in Australia thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though Owen “O-Dog” Hanson has gave evidencein March, he is stuck in a Sydney jail until the borders to the United States are reopened.
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Former US college football star turned cocaine kingpin turned star witness in the Sydney trial of a criminal lawyer is now stuck in Australia thanks to the COVID-19 threat.
Owen “O-Dog” Hanson, 38, is serving a 21-year prison term in California after he pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and money laundering.
The sentence likely would have been longer but Hanson did a deal with authorities to turn star witness in a number of other trials.
One of those trials was that of Sydney solicitor Michael Croke, who has pleaded not guilty to perverting the course of justice where.
Prosecutors allege Croke helped a criminal group concoct a lie to the police about a bag containing $700,000 cash that was seized from Sydney’s Hilton Hotel in 2011.
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Hanson was flown to Sydney and gave evidence in March at Croke’s trial that he owned the $700,00 and was going to invest it in a Sydney weight loss business.
The 38-year-old evidence gave the evidence on March 20.
The trial concluded on Thursday but Hanson is still twiddling his thumbs in Silverwater Jail.
The COVID-19 crisis has resulted in a situation where he can’t be shipped back to the US until the borders are reopened.
Hanson was a former member of the champion University of Southern California gridiron team.
He went on to be a high level cocaine dealer making huge profits with Australia taking the role of one of his most lucrative markets given he could sell a kilogram of the drug for US$175,000 on our shores as opposed to $20,000 in his home country.
His gangster lifestyle collapsed in 2015 when authorities arrested him on a golf course near San Diego in 2015.
The coronavirus crisis has played havoc with the extradition game for police.
We’re told the 20-year-old Columbian man arrested over the murder of Kimberley McRae in a Coogee unit is stuck in a cell on the Caribbean Island of Aruba until he can be extradited to Australia.
LAWYER ORDERED TO PAY COSTS
Criminal lawyer Ali Abbas copped a financial blow in the NSW Supreme Court this week.
Justice Geoff Bellew ordered he pay 90 per cent of the NSW Police’s legal costs in their legal argument over privileged documents.
Abbas has been charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder knowingly participating in a criminal group and acting with intent to pervert the course of justice.
The charges are in relation to the murder of Western Sydney teen Brayden Dillon.
Mr Abbas launched legal action against the NSW Commissioner of Police in an attempt to claim legal privilege over documents seized by police during their investigation.
On December 20, the privilege claim was rejected by Justice Bellew in respect to all but eight of the documents.
Worse for Mr Abbas, on Thursday, Justice Bellew ordered the solicitor pay 90 per cent of the police’s legal costs to run the matter.
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