Court told drug syndicate allegedly linked to Mark Buddle used NSW companies to smuggle cocaine
A court has been told legitimate businesses were used by an alleged drug syndicate to smuggle millions of dollars worth of cocaine into Australia. READ HOW.
Police & Courts
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Legitimate companies, with long and unblemished histories, allegedly allowed a drug smuggling syndicate linked to bikie boss Mark Buddle to use their business details to bring multimillion-dollar drug shipments into Australia, a court has been told.
According to police documents tendered in the NSW Supreme Court, the accused drug cartel members allegedly partnered up with “gold-class companies” because their lengthy and proven records of importing containers full of legal goods meant it was less likely that their shipments would be searched by police.
Once the partnership had been established, the syndicate allegedly planned two “dummy shipments”, using the legitimate businesses’s details, that contained legal building equipment but no drugs, to test if they would be searched, the documents say.
If the dummy shipments were successful, the police documents say, the company would be upgraded to “diamond” status and another container would be sent to Australia using the businesses’s details with cocaine worth millions hidden inside.
The details were outlined in a police fact sheet tendered in the Supreme Court during the bail application of one of the alleged syndicate members, 43-year-old Leichhardt man Edward Lee, on August 30.
The document revealed the police allegations that the syndicate planned to use a Western Sydney civil construction company — which has a 14-year unblemished trading history — as a vehicle to smuggle in cocaine.
According to the documents, the syndicate planned to use the company’s details to hide cocaine in containers of building materials, similar to shipments by the Milperra-based business. The documents say two other construction companies — one from Nowra and a second from Western Sydney — were to be used in a similar fashion.
According to the police document, one of the alleged syndicate members, Samir El Husseini — who was charged with conspiring to smuggle a commercial quantity of cocaine — was captured in a police sting telling another alleged syndicate member “Endgame” that the company had a clean history and its owner was “fully on board”.
“I have been dealing with a close mate that has been trading for 14 years,” El Husseini, 38, from Rockdale, allegedly wrote in a message on September 1, 2020, the documents say.
“(The company) has a small import history (and) used to do containers to get building containers to get building products from China. Things u use for concreting, things for formwork etc.
“Anyways this is a VERY active company paid loads of money in taxes the owner is a proper squarehead and he is fully on board. He willing to give me details for us to get started today. Even if he cops a call he will go along but we need to protect him at all costs as per usual.”
The syndicate allegedly provided the company with a cover story by staging a fake break-in at its Milperra headquarters, the documents say.
A police report was lodged by an employee of the company on October 7, 2020, saying a nail gun and a laptop containing company details and documents were stolen.
The documents also detailed how the syndicate allegedly planned to use a collection of other companies for separate drug importations, and that it was critical there were no obvious links between the companies, the documents say.
The alleged syndicate members used specific terminology for companies with clean histories and for successful dummy runs.
“No doubt this is a grade-A, gold-class company, bro,” an alleged El Husseini text message on September 1, 2020 said. “After a few dummies this thing should be a diamond.”
On September 29, 2020, a syndicate member allegedly told El Husseini: “Got the two companies ready to go. Same contact for both but completely separated. Different directors, different addresses, everything.”
Court documents say the syndicate member later confirmed via text message: “ … The two aren’t connected by director or address. But the two directors know each other. As in they work together. But as companies, they are completely separate …”
An Australian Federal Police spokesman said the practice was once thought to be rare, but then 2021’s AN0M sting gave cops a window into the methods used by crime syndicates.
The sting involved encrypted phones that were thought to be beyond the reach of police phone taps.
Police allege El Husseini was using an AN0M phone using the handles Syd17 and Force1, court documents say.
“Organised crime groups are constantly evolving methods to disguise shipments containing drugs or other illegal products,” the AFP spokesman said.
The alleged plot has links to another attempt to smuggle cocaine into Australia that resulted in international boss of the Comanchero bikie gang, Mark Buddle, being deported to Australia to face charges.
In August, Buddle was charged over an alleged attempt to smuggle $50 million worth of cocaine hidden inside a shipment of air purifying units that landed in Melbourne in May 2021. Lee was also charged over the alleged smuggling operation.
Lee was also charged with conspiring to import a commercial quantity of cocaine in relation to the alleged syndicate with El Husseini involving the legitimate businesses.
According to the documents tendered in the Supreme Court, El Husseini allegedly wrote messages to alleged syndicate member “Endgame” explaining: “We can do traffic controller stuff … witches hats … signs like stop (and) slow … Do the cheap stuff so it’s not costing us big paper per container.”
Endgame allegedly said he had connections to get El Husseini a job with a freight forwarding company, which would enable him to monitor the shipment.
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