Arncliffe’s Alexandra Karanfilovski pleads not guilty to attempting to possess meth package

A south Sydney woman has claimed she did not know there were packets of ice inside a parcel containing ready-made meals when she signed for it at her home, a jury has been told.

Alexandra Karanfilovski pleaded not guilty to attempting to possess a commercial quantity of methamphetamine and her trial began in Downing Centre District Court on Monday.

An Arncliffe woman said she believed she was receiving make-up foundation rather than a large amount of imported “ice” inside a package sent to her home, a jury has heard.

Alexandra Karanfilovski, 26, has pleaded not guilty to attempting to possess a commercial quantity of methamphetamine and her trial began in Downing Centre District Court on Monday.

The court heard the central issue in the trial would be if Karanfilovski knew if contents of the package contained the drugs after an undercover police officer delivered an inert substance in the parcel.

Karanfilovski’s best friend Israh Chahine, who also lives at Arncliffe, and two male associates Adam Ayshan and Mohamad Hawchar were arrested at the same time.

According to a statement of agreed facts read to the jury, Australian Border Force officials examined a consignment containing 12 ration packets of ready-made meals, which actually contained a total of 4.2kg of meth, that was sent from Orange County in the US and addressed to Chahine on May 5, 2020.

Israh Chahine and Alexandra Karanfilovski.

NSW Police replaced the drugs with an inert substance and conducted a controlled delivery to Karanfilovski’s home at Station St, Arncliffe, on May 13.

The jury heard Chahine had changed her mailing address to Karanfilovski’s home in April.

From May 12 Ayshan made multiple inquiries with Chahine as to whether the package arrived, with the conversations recorded after police intercepted Chahine’s phone.

Chahine called Karanfilovski multiple times to check if the package, which she described as “for the boys”, had arrived.

The jury heard Chahine went to check Karanfilovski’s neighbour’s house to see if the consignment had been delivered there by mistake.

Alexandra Karanfilovski.

It is claimed at one point Chahine said to Karanfilovski, “they better not think we are f--king around with them”.

The women referred to the package as “foundation” which the Crown alleged Karanfilovski knew was the package containing ice.

The court heard on May 13 the package was delivered by an undercover police operative and Karanfilovski initially said she was Chahine but then had to produce her driver’s licence so she signed it in her own name.

Karanfilovski allegedly drove the package to Chahine’s house where she handled it wearing garden gloves, and Karanfilovski commented “I didn’t wear gloves”.

Chahine drove it to Ayshan’s Roselands house where she received $2000 for her and Karanfilovski to split $1000 each, as opposed to the $3000 Chahine originally was told she would get, the court was told.

Chahine also looked inside the package and removed her name and phone number from the package, the jury heard.

Israh Chahine.

Chahine allegedly called Karanfilovski to tell her about receiving less money where Karanfilovski said “straight out I don’t want to do it again for $1000. Tell them no more”.

The court was told the men and women were arrested the same day with police searching their homes and mobiles phones seized, along with the $2000 in Chahine’s car.

The jury heard the drugs would have been worth up to $4.2m if sold at street level.

The court heard Karanfilovski and Chahine were childhood friends and Karanfilovski was completing her second year of a Bachelor of criminology degree at Western Sydney University at the time.

Defence barrister Tom Hughes also noted that Karanfilovski agreed to receive other packages for Chahine before the delivery of drugs because Chahine did not want her strict father to see her items.

He said Karanfilovski would give evidence that if she had known what was inside the package then she never would have agreed to receive the consignment.

The trial is expected to last up to seven days and will continue on Tuesday.