Four men arrested after cocaine seized at Merrylands, Auburn, Rhodes
Police have seized 500g of cocaine with a street value of more than $150,000 and arrested four men at Merrylands, Auburn and Rhodes during a Sydney-wide investigation.
Police have seized 500g of cocaine with a street value of more than $150,000 and arrested four men at Merrylands, Auburn and Rhodes who allegedly distributed more than $10,000 worth of cocaine every day for six months.
VIDEO: WATCH THE SEARCH UNFOLD
Strike Force Bayou detectives, Public Order and Riot Squad and local police, — executed four search warrants at two homes in Merrylands (including one at Lansdowne St), as well as Auburn and Rhodes about 9am today.
The arrests followed an investigation into the commercial supply of cocaine across Sydney that started in September.
Three men — aged 29, 35 and 38 — were arrested during the search warrants and taken in police custody. A fourth man, aged 37, was arrested at Auburn police station.
He was charged with supply prohibited drug (large commercial quantity), supplying prohibited drugs on an ongoing basis, knowingly dealing with proceeds of crime and knowingly participating in criminal group assisting crime.
The Auburn man was refused bail to appear at Burwood Local Court today.
The 29-year-old Rhodes man was charged with supplying prohibited drugs (large commercial quantity), supplying prohibited drugs on an ongoing basis, knowingly dealing with proceeds of crime and knowingly participating in criminal group assist crime.
He was refused bail to appear at Burwood Local Court tomorrow.
The 35-year-old Merrylands man was charged with supplying prohibited drugs (large commercial quantity), and knowingly participate in criminal group assist crime.
The 38-year-old Merrylands man was charged with supplying prohibited drugs (large commercial quantity), supplying prohibited drugs on an ongoing basis and knowingly participate in criminal group assist crime.
They were both refused bail to appear at Parramatta Local Court tomorrow.
Drug and Firearms Squad commander Michael Cook said further arrests would be made and the men were responsible for distributing more than “$10,000 worth of cocaine each and every day of the week for a number of months”.
“This adds up to quite significant amounts of prohibited drug and, by our activities today, we have removed that distribution ring from the Sydney metropolitan area,’’ he said.
“At the moment we are focusing only on this particular ring. We believe there were up to seven drivers operating at any one time in this distribution ring depending on the demand and the day of the week.”
“We believe, we have tracked in excess of hundreds and hundreds of individual transactions involving many hundreds of persons, if not thousands of persons, in Sydney.
Supt Cook said police also seized a Toyota Landcruiser, $5000 cash and drug paraphernalia for be used for forensic examination and that NSW Police were determined to smash drug syndicates.
“Waste water analyst results in Sydney have indicated that Sydney is the cocaine capital of Australia,’’ he said.
“The NSW Police are determined to lose that reputation so we will be doing everything possible to identify those persons involved in trafficking cocaine in this city and bringing them before courts so they can be adequately dealt with.”
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Supt Cook said public tip offs were always welcome to solve the drug crisis.
“As I indicated cocaine is a very serious problem in this city,’’ he said.
“If anyone wants to come forward and provide us information they should feel free to do so or contact CrimeStoppers.”
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