How police busted cocaine syndicate allegedly linked to Damion Flower, baggage handler

A cocaine syndicate allegedly linked to racehorse owner Damion Flower and a baggage handler was busted after an item was left at Sydney airport.

One of the country’s biggest cocaine syndicates was uncovered when cops opened a blue Nike bag that had been left behind at Sydney International Airport after Flight QF64 arrived from South Africa, the District Court has been told.

Corrupt baggage handler To’or’o (John) Mafiti, 51, who was supposed to collect the bag allegedly for leading race horse owner Damion Flower, was on three days of rostered leave.

Inside the bag, the Australian Border Force found 24kg of cocaine and the hunt was on.

Horse trainer Damion Flower.

Mafiti now faces a maximum sentence of life in jail after pleading guilty to 12 counts of importing a staggering 228 kg of cocaine between June 29, 2016 and May 22, 2019 and dealing in more than $1 million that was the proceeds of crime. He is due to appear before the NSW District Court on Friday.

Flower, 48, a part-owner of champion stallion Snitzel, has denied any involvement and is also due to face the court on Friday for arraignment. He is charged with three counts of importing cocaine and two counts of dealing with the proceeds of crime.

Flower has spent almost two years in custody since he was arrested on May 22, 2019 at his Moorebank home.

A third man, panel beater Ashoor Youkhana, 44, has already pleaded guilty to his role in the syndicate and been jailed.

A statement of facts tendered to the court after Mafiti’s guilty plea and signed by Mafiti said he imported the cocaine.

To’or’o (John) Mafiti.

Following Mafiti’s arrest, officers also found more than $4.4 million in two Kennards self-storage units leased by him and more than $1.7 million in a suitcase at his house.

Flower had worked as a baggage handler at Sydney International Airport between 2000 and 2004 and Mafiti worked there between July 2000 and the date of his arrest in May 2019.

“Flower and the offender were known to each other,” the facts state.

Police will allege that Flower directed Mafiti to import the cocaine and had been primarily communicating with Mafiti by sending coded text messages.

The court documents state Mafiti’s role involved using his Qantas staff access to collect duffel bags containing cocaine that were hidden on Qantas flights from South Africa before passing the bags others in the vicinity of the airport.

He usually stayed at the airport after the end of his rostered shifts and would attend the flight QF64 when he was not tasked to do so.

Authorities were first alerted to the cocaine operation in June, 2016, when Australian Federal Police officers found 24 kilograms of the drug in a Nike sports bag that nobody had collected from flight QF64.

The following day Mafiti arrived at the airport to collect the cocaine that had been seized, the agreed facts state.

Police monitored the syndicate for almost three years before arresting Youkhana in April, 2019, and Mafiti and Flower the following month.

The second importation was on February 17, 2017 when QF64 arrived late in Sydney having been diverted to Canberra due to bad weather. Mafiti’s shift ended at 3.30pm but he was approved to work overtime to 8pm.

The rest of the importations were similar with Mafiti organising his rosters to be there when QF24 arrived or working overtime. He was captured on CCTV arriving at work without a bag and leaving carrying duffel bags.

On the day of their arrests, QF64 arrived in Sydney at 3.07 pm.

According to the statement of facts, Mafiti’s phone received a text message allegedly from Flower’s phone saying: “Hey bro what up. Looking at super rigby games and prices for Saturday’s game. Our Christ church of crusaders will smash the blues bro. Im going to put on multi bets. First game 5 second game 4 and then last try scorer player 8. He is a flyin machine bro. Wind burn lol lol.”

QF64 was carrying a container with the number AKE92548 and Mafiti was seen getting a duffel bag from it.

He was arrested after carrying the bag through the staff exit. It was found to contain blocks of cocaine with a pure weight of 19.365 kgs, 303 grams of methamphetamine and a Samsung phone.

Youkhana was last sentenced to four years jail with a non-parole period of two years and six months after pleading guilty to possessing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug.

The court was then told that Youkhana had only acted as a delivery driver on one occasion where he met Mafiti and drove 90 metres before officers swooped and arrested him, finding at least 19 kilograms of cocaine in a duffel bag