Bennet Schwartz: How Louie the dog took down eastern suburbs drug smuggler

A French bulldog called Louie brought down the multimillion-dollar cocaine network of former Sydney Grammar student Bennet Schwartz, who died in jail earlier this year.

Cocaine smuggler and ex Rio Tinto employee Bennet Schwartz was taken down by police over a multimillion-dollar drug operation because of a dog — but not in the way you might expect.

In the criminal underworld, the term dog is a reference to a person who gives information to police that leads to the arrest of others.

But in Schwartz’s case he was arrested because of an actual dog — a French bulldog to be precise, according to documents tendered to his unsuccessful bail application in the NSW Supreme Court in February.

The pooch was the beloved pet of the former Sydney Grammar student who worked as an analyst for mining giant Rio Tinto before opting into a lucrative but high-risk lifestyle as a drug smuggler.

His new-found profession ultimately cost Schwartz his life when he was found dead in his maximum security cell inside Silverwater Jail on February 19 — one day after being refused bail.

Accused cocaine smuggler Bennet Schwartz died in jail in February.

Bennet Schwartz being arrested on October 29, 2021, at his Rose Bay home.

Leading up to Schwartz’s arrest last October, Australian Federal Police investigators secretly raided his Double Bay apartment on August 6, 2021, in search of evidence that would link the 34-year-old to a major cocaine smuggling syndicate.

On the other side of the door, they found the tiny French bulldog looking up at them with an inquisitive look.

“The dog’s name was Louie,” a police source said.

“Schwartz owned two of the same breed.”

Louie’s presence inside the apartment became a key piece of evidence because it proved Schwartz was one of the people behind a plot to smuggle $10 million worth of cocaine into Australia.

The link was established because three months earlier Schwartz had sent a photo of the dog to someone using the same phone that he had used to run the drug syndicate, the court documents said.

When Schwartz sent the picture on May 25, 2021, police had limited proof as to the identity of who sent the message. This was because Schwartz forwarded it using his encrypted AN0M phone that was registered under the secret alias “Anybreak”.

The phones were popular among criminal groups because they were thought to feature impenetrable encryption that prevented police from monitoring their conversations.

A photo sent on May 25, 2021, by the AN0M user “Anybreak”.

The same dog police found when they searched Bennet Schwartz's home.

The opposite was the case. The phones were part of a worldwide police sting and investigators actually had the ability to monitor the conversations on the phones.

But while the investigators could monitor the conversations about importing drugs, they still had to join the dots to figure out the identity of the people sending the messages.

The coordinates of where the texts referring to the drugs and the dog were sent matched the location of Schwartz’s apartment block.

Police had to drill down even further to rule out that the messages were not being sent by one of Schwartz’s neighbours.

However, after raiding the apartment, police now knew the dog from the May 25 photo was Louie — and that he was Schwartz’s dog.

Police also noted in the court documents that the tiles in Schwartz’s apartment matched the ones that Louie was sitting on in the May 25 photo.

They took a photo of Louie during the August raid and included both pictures in their brief of evidence against Schwartz.

The officers also seized a “burner phone” in the apartment that had been used to check on the delivery status of the cocaine shipments.

Bennet Schwartz was arrested in October 2021 at his Rose Bay home over a plot to ship 27kg of cocaine to Australia.

The sum total was that investigators now had the evidence they needed to prove it was Schwartz who was using the encrypted phone to set up a plan to smuggle 27kg of cocaine into Australia with northern beaches restaurateur and accused drug baron Mostafa Baluch.

Baluch was arrested in November trying to escape in the back of a truck over the Queensland border. He went on the run after controversially being granted bail on drug smuggling charges related to the 900kg cocaine shipment from South America.

Baluch has also been charged over the plot to smuggle 27kg of cocaine hidden inside air cargo shipments with Schwartz. He is yet to enter a plea to any of the charges.

Police allege in the documents that Schwartz and Baluch smuggled the cocaine from the UK and Greece. The drugs were allegedly hidden inside two packages containing modelling clay and a third that had TV wall mounting brackets inside.

Cocaine seized by the AFP which resulted in charges against Bennet Schwartz.

The packaged drugs seized during the raid, which led to Schwartz’s arrest.

The shipments were sent to apartment blocks in Western Sydney under fake names, including “Clay Thompson”, the documents said.

An examination of Schwartz’s burner phone showed investigators he had used it to track 62 packages sent via an air carrier service between August 27, 2020, and August 3, 2021.

Border security examined 25 of the shipments and six of them were found to contain 14kg of cocaine, 8.2kg of heroin and 48.6kg of methamphetamine.

The cocaine had been hidden in the “steering console” for a “boat tender”, court documents said.

The heroin was disguised in printer cartridges while the methamphetamine was hidden inside glass buddha statues.

The messages showed Schwartz claimed to his fellow syndicate members that he had multiple corrupt insiders inside the Australian Border Force.

However, police claim this was a lie.

Bennet Schwartz used to work as an analyst for mining giant Rio Tinto.

“During an extensive six month AFP investigation, (Schwartz) did not associate, meet or contact any members of the ABF,” a police fact sheet tendered at Schwartz’s bail application said.

Instead, police intelligence showed Schwartz was simply logging on to a website and checking the status of the syndicate’s shipments — in much the same way as any person would monitor the delivery progress of an online shopping order.

Nevertheless, Schwartz still sold his worth to the syndicate.

On April 24, 2021, police allege in the court documents that Baluch sent Schwartz a message where he said: “Hi bro, we have 3 parcels ready, one with 4 one with 6 and one with 8.”

Baluch allegedly added: “He sending the 4 today … after that we do 6 than 8 bro. And So on … So that’s 4 kilos from Greece correct?”

On May 2, police allege Schwartz sent Baluch a message warning that a corrupt ABF official had alerted him that a drug shipment from Greece was to be examined by law enforcement.

“Greece red,” Schwartz allegedly told Baluch. “Found it when he wasn’t on shift.”

Police arrested Schwartz at Rose Bay on October 30.

He was still on parole for his previous drug smuggling offences, which was not due to expire until September.

Schwartz served four years in jail after being sentenced in March 2018 for smuggling 25kg cocaine using similar methods. He resumed his operations after being released from jail in early 2020.

During his earlier stint in prison, Schwartz was attacked and stabbed — and survived — after a fellow inmate accused him of giving information to authorities.

There are no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death in jail in February, which will be the subject of an inquest.

Schwartz’s case follows on the tail of a series of other eastern suburbs cocaine-related scandals and downfalls.Last week a Sydney banker underwent an extraordinary court bid to keep secret the identity of his wife, who was found dead in a hotel room after allegedly being given cocaine by her drug dealer lover.

The woman, a mother from Sydney’s eastern suburbs, met formworker Ahmad Al-Zghoul, 37, in room 3402 at Haymarket’s Meriton Suites before paramedics were called almost three hours later, police will allege.

Al-Zghoul is not accused of being responsible for the woman’s death.

The woman, who was unable to be revived, was later found to have had cocaine, alcohol and the dangerous drug GBL in her system.

In February, The Sunday Telegraph revealed how newly divorced men were looking for love in Sydney’s eastern suburbs by snaring attractive young women using cash, cocaine and champagne - known colloquially as the three Cs.

One woman in the midst of a messy settlement said: “I’ve lived here my entire life and have never seen people behaving like this. It’s like these people have no moral values.

“Everything is transactional. For the price of an Uber and a glass of champagne you get to have sex with a young woman.”