Julian Lee, husband of Insta-famous pole dancer Dirdy Birdy, granted bail on $64m cocaine import charge
Julian Lee will be reunited with his Insta-famous, pole dancing wife known as Dirdy Birdy after the state’s highest court agreed to release him on bail on Friday.
Police & Courts
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The incarcerated husband of an Instagram-famous Sydney pole dancer has been released from custody on conditional bail, more than three years after police charged him with attempting to smuggle $64 million worth of cocaine into Australia.
Julian Lee has been behind bars since 2021 when he was arrested as part of sweeping federal police raids connected to the infamous, international AN0M app sting.
Lee is married to Hoang Anh Le, better known as “Dirdy Birdy”, who has a range of pole dancing equipment as well as more than 100,000 Instagram followers who enjoy her routines.
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Ms Le or any of Lee’s family members.
Prosecutors allege Lee, a one-time personal trainer who was on bail for an unrelated drug supply charge at the time of his arrest, conspired with others to import 171kg of cocaine from South America aboard the Liberian-registered fruit juice tanker Ouro Do Brasil.
It is alleged the cocaine was concealed in the ship’s underwater sea chest and it was Lee’s role was to organise divers to recover the drugs once the tanker reached Newcastle harbour.
However, the court heard the cocaine was intercepted and removed by authorities at a Belgian port prior to the ship’s arrival in Australia.
Police allege Lee went by the user handle 4Devils on the AN0M app and allegedly used the encrypted platform to communicate with the overseas contact about when the shipment was arriving and how the cocaine would be unloaded.
“How deep [do] they [the divers] have to dive?” Lee allegedly asked during one conversation.
“Also, how many trips back and forth will they need to do? Also, is it OK for a smaller boat to approach the tanker? Will it look suspicious?”
Lee was arrested in June 2021 and his bail on the unrelated drug charge was revoked.
The Court of Criminal Appeal heard Lee was subsequently convicted of the original drug charge and sentenced to 20 months’ jail, which he served while waiting for his fresh charges to proceed through the courts.
The court was told the current case, like many others connected to the AN0M sting, had been significantly delayed while parties awaited the outcome of a landmark High Court legal challenge as to whether the police evidence gathered through the app was admissible at trial.
Lee’s case is set down for trial in mid-2025, with a 2024 date previously vacated.
In seeking bail on Lee’s behalf, defence barrister Avni Djamel SC argued that even if the evidence was ruled admissible, prosecutors would have a hard time proving Lee had formally entered into any conspiracy with his co-accused to carry out the import.
He proposed stringent bail conditions including a $1.3m surety over Lee’s mother’s home, electronic ankle monitoring and a prohibition on Lee accessing any encrypted apps on his phone.
He also said Lee could abide by a home detention condition which would only allow him to leave the house only for medical and legal appointments, to report to police daily and to work at his mother’s restaurant.
Meanwhile, Ms Le wrote an affidavit in support of her husband, revealing they had been together for 26 years and both had close family ties in Australia.
The three-judge panel, consisting of justices Hament Dhanji, Tim Faulkner and Kristina Stern, on Friday agreed to release Lee after finding the stringency of the bail conditions would reduce the risk of him committing further offences or fleeing the jurisdiction.
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