Alleged Alameddines Wessam El Jajieh and Adam Achrafi granted bail

The Daily Telegraph can reveal incredible details about the alleged inner workings of the Alameddine network’s drug dealing arm ‘Ready for War’.

Multiple alleged members of the Alameddine clan have been released on bail straight back out on the streets by the courts, just a day after police claimed they had “cut the head off the snake” one of the state’s biggest crime networks.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal incredible details about the alleged inner workings of the drug dealing arm of the Alameddine organised crime network, which police claim called themselves “R4W: Ready for War”.

Court documents detail how police claim the alleged R4W drug dealers used code names like “Snowy” and “Chucky” for their street-level dealers, who would then send quirky text messages to cocaine using Sydneysiders such as “We got the pearls that will make your toes curl”.

The papers also confirmed for the first time that police believe Alameddine heavyweight Masood Zakaria, 26, fled the country last December because he had “become aware of his pending arrest, and prosecution”.

The 10-month investigation by Strike Force Sugarcane targeted what police allege is a drug syndicate run by Asaad Alahmad, the brother-in-law of alleged Alameddine crime clan boss Rafat Alameddine.

Officers executed a co-ordinated dawn take-down, arresting 18 people. Picture: NSW Police

Police allege that during one conversation, Alahmad had a discussion with two other syndicate members — Khaled and Abraham Zreika.

The chat was allegedly about wheelchair bound Mohammed Rifai and whether he could work as a “drug runner”.

“The three discussed (and laughed) about the use of a person in a wheelchair, and how this would be ideal ‘as he would just sit there’,” the document states.

After allegedly accepting the job, Rifai — who was one of the men charged on Tuesday — “was observed by police in his wheelchair within the driveway of his unit complex on a number of occasions”.

Police allege that the phones used by the syndicate brought in up to $250,000-a-week in drug sales.

They were so valuable that court papers state some “drug runners” allegedly involved in the syndicate had a notebook with all the numbers of their customers, “n an attempt to back them up or to retain them if the handset itself was ever compromised”.

22-year-old Wessam El Jajieh fronted Burwood Local Court on Wednesday on drug supply and criminal group charges, and has been granted bail.

That investigation involved the shooting of a Guildford home of Bilal Mahfoud, another alleged associate of the Alameddine clan, as he sat on his balcony out the front.

Police tried to get CCTV from Achrafi’s home directly across the road but he told them he had none.

His solicitor Abdul Saddik applied for bail and it was not opposed by the prosecution, on the condition that he have no contact with other members of the alleged Alameddine clan.

Of the 18 alleged members arrested during dawn raids on Tuesday, Achrafi was one of three to make bail on Wednesday.

The other two — Wessam El Jajieh and Adam Alameddine, the only man with the surname Alameddine to be arrested — were also before Magistrate James Viney at Burwood Local Court.

El Jajieh, 22, was charged with three offences including supplying less than 1g of cocaine, with his barrister Talal Krayem telling the court his client “denied” any involvement with the Alameddine clan.

Adam Alameddine, 25, was arrested at South Granville and charged with supplying prohibited drugs on an ongoing basis.

But his barrister Ahmad Moutasallem told the court: “Even though this is a very long and colourful fact sheet, in respect to Adam Alameddine’s involvement it is very limited to a few days.”

He too was allowed out on strict conditional bail.

At one stage, after reading the allegation in court documents that he was the leader of the clan carrying his surname, Magistrate Viney asked the court if Rafat Alameddine had been charged with any offences.

“He’s not currently charged, no Your Honour,” the police prosecutor replied.

ALLEGED ALAMEDDINE CLAN BOYS BACK ON THE STREETS

Wessam El Jajieh, 22, was charged with three offences including supplying less than 1g of cocaine, and also participating in a criminal group that police describe as the Alameddine clan, and fronted Burwood Local Court on Wednesday.

Sitting next door in Burwood Police Station and wearing a white hoodie, El Jajieh waved at his family as he was beamed into the court via a video link, with his younger siblings blowing kisses back at him.

The court heard that despite documents linking El Jajieh to the Alameddine clan, he is actually only a low level associate of a subgroup of that clan – R4W, or Ready for War.

“With respect to the allegations made in the antecedents in respect to the Alameddine OCN that is denied,” his barrister Talal Krayem told the court.

“My client is 22-years-old, all of his three siblings and his mother are in court supporting him, he lives with his mum and dad at home in Yagoona.

“He is employed as a labourer. He studies at Western Sydney University where he does a building design and management degree.

“I would submit it is a weak crown case, there are a number of holes in the case which I’ve eluded to … and the likelihood of a custodial sentence if he was to be convicted is small.”

Despite the objections of a specialist prosecutor from the NSW Police Criminal Groups Squad, Magistrate Viney granted El Jajieh bail on strict conditions – including that he not associate with any one else allegedly involved in the Alameddine crime clan.

Also facing Burwood Local Court on Wednesday was Adam Achrafi a man police allege is one of the leaders of the R4W alongside Rafat Alameddine’s brother-in-law Assad Alahmad.

The application for bail by his solicitor Abdul Saddik was not opposed by police, despite the court hearing it was alleged by police that “the OCN operates under a Mafia-style hierarchy”.

He too was released by Magistrate Viney on the strict condition that he not associate with any of the other alleged Alameddine clan members mentioned in court documents.

Adam Achrafi’s bail application was not opposed by police.

The only man with the surname Alameddine to be arrested during Tuesday’s raids is also back on the streets, with a court hearing his links to the alleged crime network “is very limited”.

Adam Alameddine, 25, was arrested at South Granville during the dawn raids and charged with supplying prohibited drugs on an ongoing basis, and participating in a criminal group.

“Even though this is a very long and colourful fact sheet, in respect to Adam Alameddine’s involvement it is very limited to a few days,” his barrister Ahmad Moutasallem.

“Your Honour, the association with a criminal group is denied.

“He’s a concreter and he’s currently working... he is not a person who is habitually committing crimes.”

Magistrate Viney agreed that the allegations made by NSW Police about Adam Alameddine’s alleged links to the organised crime network that carries his surname left him “troubled”.

“It’s not exactly clear to me how the Crown clearly establish that he’s a member or an associate (of the Alameddine OCN or Ready for War),” he said.

“The court is troubled by the facts presented in terms of obtaining the occasions that other drugs have been supplied.”

Courts across Sydney were littered with men arrested during the dawn raids by Strike Force Sugarcane on Wednesday, the culmination of a 10-month investigation.

In the wake of the raids, Police Minister Paul Toole claimed the Alameddine network was one of Sydney’s “most dangerous” crime clans.

“We’ve actually closed the net on one of Sydney’s most dangerous crime families … I think there is a very strong message here that our police will continue to be out there in force, our police will continue to hunt those people down,” he said.

Police Minister Paul Toole and Commissioner Karen Webb hailed the series of raids as “closing the net” on the Alameddines. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

NSW Police commissioner Karen Webb declared the arrests had “cut the head off the snake”.

“Today we smashed an organised criminal network. The entire syndicate has been arrested, including high ranking members of that syndicate,” Ms Webb said.

“I’m confident that we’ve cut the head off the snake.

“The recent gang related violence that has been plaguing Sydney stems directly from the battle for control of these drug markets and the profits.

“All of those arrested displayed considerable wealth and assets, which we allege were generated entirely through the profit of drugs.”

Police allege that the syndicate used dozens of phones to sell drugs to thousands of Sydneysiders who were funding their organised crime activities.