Bilal El Hassan arrested after police search warrant in Bexley North
POLICE had an extraordinary stroke of good fortune when they caught up with a man in Sydney’s south – while they were looking for someone else.
St George Shire Standard
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POLICE had an extraordinary stroke of good fortune when they caught up with a man in Sydney’s south – while they were looking for someone else.
Police had been searching for Bilal El Hassan, 37, since August 20 last year after he allegedly broke into a man’s Liverpool apartment and used his brother’s car to kidnap him before assaulting him.
However, officers investigating drug and firearm supply in Sydney’s southwest had another man in mind when they stumbled on El Hassan at a Bexley North unit on Monday afternoon.
Wetherill Park Region Enforcement Squad officers attached to Strike Force Jagungal had arrested a 30-year-old man in Kogarah to serve him with a Firearms Prohibition Order.
They found the man was disqualified from driving until 2022 before they went to his Bexley North home, where El Hassan was allegedly hiding out.
Police say El Hassan ran from officers, dropping a bag which allegedly contained a loaded semiautomatic Beretta 9mm pistol and ammunition.
Local police, PolAir and the Dog Unit assisted Wetherill Park RES officers before El Hassan was found in the carpark at the Bexley North Hotel on the corner of Slade and Bexley Rds.
El Hassan faced court on Tuesday charged with the outstanding warrants for the alleged kidnapping and several charges related to his Monday arrest including assaulting and intimidating a police officer and possessing an unauthorised, unregistered, loaded firearm with the serial number removed.
He was also charged with not keeping the firearm safely, possessing unauthorised ammunition, unlawfully entering Bexley North Hotel, attending a drug premises and organising a drug premises, as well as a negligent driving charge related to an alleged incident in Revesby in May.
El Hassan was formally refused bail and his matter is listed for mention at Sutherland Local Court on October 23, when he will appear via audio visual link.
The 30-year-old man who was the police’s original target was also charged with driving disqualified, dangerous driving, attending a drug premises, organising a drug premises and trespassing.
He was granted strict conditional bail to face Sutherland Local Court on September 25.