Rashad Alameddine charged in prison for $100K cocaine bust
An alleged “key member” in the Alameddine crew has been charged over a staggering amount of cocaine months after police raided homes in Sydney’s west and allegedly found bottles of the drug GBH.
Police & Courts
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An alleged “key member” of the Alameddine crew was sitting in a Sydney prison cell, fighting life sentence drug charges, when word came down that detectives were about to charge him again — this time over a slab of cocaine worth almost $100,000.
Rachad Alameddine, 31, was arrested in February 2022 after police stormed his Merrylands home in a raid designed to dismantle what they claimed was a large dial-a-dealer drug supply network.
Alameddine was found hiding in the roof of a Yagoona home, police alleged at the time, and he was arrested and charged over bottles of the drug GBH allegedly found during the raid.
The charges included directing a criminal group and ongoing drug dealing.
“ (Alameddine) participated in a criminal group, whose activities were organised and ongoing,” a police court document setting out the allegations reads.
“(He) directed the activities of that group, knowing that it was a criminal group, and new such participation contributed to the occurrence of criminal activity.”
Alameddine was also charged with supplying a larger than commercial quantity of drugs for the almost eight kilograms of GBH police allege his syndicate disbursed from December 2021 to his arrest in February 2022.
That charge, if proven in court, carries the heftiest maximum punishment in the NSW criminal court system; life behind bars.
Alameddine has been held on remand since his arrest at Silverwater until the anti-gang squad Strikeforce Raptor paid a visit two months later.
They charged Alameddine with driving under the influence of drugs after they pulled over his HiLux in Guildford, months earlier, and a swab came back positive for ice, cocaine and cannabis.
Two months after that Alameddine, still moving through the courts, was given word he will be charged with two more drug offences.
The first was possession of 3.1g of GBH, the second was supplying a greater than commercial quantity of cocaine.
Police, in court documents, claim Alameddine supplied just over 269 grams of cocaine between late November 2021 and his arrest in February 2022.
That much cocaine is worth close to $100,000.
Just like the GBH supply charge, the latest charge also carries a potential life in prison if Alameddine is convicted.
NSW Police Strike Force Dolci, which was formed to investigate the alleged drug network, arrested three men during its raids including Alameddine — who they called a “key member of an organised criminal network”.
It’s believed the latest charges, which were laid last month, came after the phones, chemical bottles and powders found in two Merrylands homes underwent forensic testing.
Alameddine will face court on Thursday where he is expected to be sentenced for the driving offences, after pleading guilty.
He continues to fight the drug supply charges, which will be mentioned in Parramatta court this week.
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