Sydney’s secret drug houses revealed
Dealers and gangs are increasingly using prime real estate to grow and distribute drugs. Take a look behind the walls in our special report on Sydney’s drug houses.
Wentworth Courier
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Drug dealers are using prime real estate in some of Sydney’s most exclusive suburbs to run their illegal operations.
Some homes are being used for drug production, some are used as command centres while others are headquarters for large networks. Here are eight that have been uncovered in recent months.
SYLVANIA WATERS
Wealthy party boy James Mina was caught supplying drugs from his parents’ waterfront mansion in Sylvania Waters, in Sydney’s south, last year.
Court documents revealed police found 20g of cocaine, 4g of MDMA, 11g of anabolic steroid Oxandrolone, almost 2g of anabolic steroid Mesterolone, 0.78g of dexamphetamine and 22g of testosterone in Mina’s bedroom at the mansion.
He was arrested and later pleaded guilty to supply prohibited drug and possess prohibited drug, receiving a conviction and a 12-month community correction order with supervision.
Mina worked as a personal trainer and ran his own party promotion company called MisDeMina.
ROZELLE
Drug dealer Paul Makdissi was “living amongst” piles of cash, millions of dollars of cocaine, MDMA and ice in his Rozelle apartment, a court heard during his sentencing in 2019.
Police raided his Pine St apartment in 2017 and found two firearms, about $290,000 in cash stashed in a Gucci bag, a money counter, scales and bags full of drugs.
In total, officers seized 17kg of ice, 1.5kg of cocaine and 4.5kg of MDMA at his home and a nearby storage unit.
Makdissi pleaded guilty to drug supply charges and was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of at least seven years and nine months.
CHATSWOOD
In 2019, police uncovered massive amounts of cannabis being grown inside multimillion-dollar homes on Sydney’s north shore.
In one incident that year, police found 159 cannabis plants with a street value of $630,000 growing in six rooms of a property on Fullers Rd, Chatswood.
Police also found Iven Chun Soong – who was seen entering the property minutes before the search – hiding in a roof cavity of the home.
He later pleaded guilty to cultivating a commercial quantity of cannabis.
He told a court he did not live at the address but would visit every couple of days to water and trim the illegal plants.
MOUNT HUNTER
In 2018, a sprawling rural property on the outskirts of Sydney was discovered to be home to one of the biggest drug labs uncovered in NSW’s history.
Police uncovered more than 20kg of MDMA powder and pills during the raid of the property, in the southwest Sydney suburb of Mount Hunter, and more than 20L of GHB among other illegal items.
A man now in his 40s, who can’t be identified for legal reasons, was charged with a long list of drug offences and has since pleaded guilty.
DOUBLE BAY
Drug dealer Shane Sukkar hid over 500g of cocaine in the wall cavity of an underground wine cellar at his expensive Double Bay home.
Police uncovered the drugs inside the wall cavity in 2016 during a search warrant.
He was later jailed for at least two years and nine months for a string of offences including supplying a commercial quantity of cocaine.
Sukkar was planning a major redevelopment of the home at the time of his arrest, with a DA submitted to Woollahra Council.
BURRANEER
Party boy and drug dealer Matthew Doyle enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle and growing property portfolio prior to his downfall in 2019.
The married Burraneer property developer was sentenced to at least five years imprisonment last year for his attempt to supply 50kg of cocaine, worth $85 million, and dealing with over $500,000 in crime proceeds.
The NSW Supreme Court placed a freeze on Doyle’s $2 million Dolans Rd home in Burraneer where he lived with his wife, as well as other real estate holdings under his name.
Two of his friends, Jared Hart and Raoul Kesby, also received prison sentences last year for their roles in the drug operation.
MONA VALE
Electrician Jesse Lindsay Holloway was jailed in 2019 for selling drugs from the carpark of a supermarket and for a stash of drugs found inside his home in the affluent suburb of Mona Vale, on Sydney’s northern beaches.
He told a court he was dealing drugs so he could pay off the large mortgage for his expensive home.
On top of his drug dealings at an Aldi Supermarket car park, police searched his Mona Vale home and found 22 different types of drugs including Ritalin, hallucinogens and steroids.
He was jailed for at least two years.
ROSE BAY
Rose Bay father Ahmed Sadi traded his family home in the affluent suburb of Sydney’s east for a prison cell after taking part in the supply of 130kg of ice (meth) worth about $70 million last year.
Police raided his house on the well-to-do Liverpool St during his arrest after uncovering the huge drug haul.
The drugs were found inside air cargo sent from Mexico and were later delivered to Bremick Fasteners in Alexandria where Sadi worked as a national operations manager.
Sadi has since pleaded guilty to take part supply prohibited drug (large commercial quantity) and remains in jail on remand awaiting sentencing.
Sadi’s brother-in-law Moey Sadi, from Sylvania, has also pleaded guilty to his involvement in the operation.
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