NSW Police arrest 45 people, seize guns and drugs in raids
A mobile phone salesman is thought to be a central player in an underworld gang’s drug syndicate, police allege, after a Strike Force Raptor blitz yielded 800 fraudulent SIM cards.
Police & Courts
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A mobile phone salesman from western Sydney allegedly doubled as a major cog in an underworld gang’s operation, police said.
Thirty-year-old Nou Silena Loeung has been charged by police as part of their crackdown on the “Ready For War” gang, who are aligned with the Alameddine crime family.
Police allege Loeung sold the group thousands of fraudulent sim cards and facilitated the sale of cocaine and other drugs while running a suburban mobile phone business.
The people who allegedly bought the sims from Loeung are a who’s who of Sydney’s underworld but are mostly from the Ready For War group.
Loeung is the manager of Mobiletown Granville and is expected to front Parramatta Local Court Friday morning.
He has been charged with 27 offences including obtaining financial advantage by deception, knowingly or recklessly direct criminal group assisting crime, and knowingly deriving benefit from a criminal group.
It comes as NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb on Friday morning said officers seized 800 fraudulent sim cards from sweeping drug raids on the group on Thursday.
Police arrested 45 people and seized eight firearms and more than 20kg of MDMA and other prohibited drugs in the past 48 hours.
Commissioner Webb said it had essentially taken their operation “offline” and killed their dial-a-dealer syndicate. She said one phone had 700 contacts on it.
The latest raids come on top of the arrests of 18 people on Tuesday who police allege were members of a gang called Ready 4 War, who they claim are associates of the Alameddine crime network and major distributors of drugs throughout Sydney.
They were targeted as part of Taskforce Erebus, set up in response to the gangland murders of three major crime figures in the past month.
On the same day police were rounding up members of R4W, in a separate operation officers from Taskforce Hawke, which includes officers from the Raptor Squad, seized a massive amount of drugs including a pill press at an address in Fairfield in Sydney’s west.
A senior member of the Life and Death bikie gang was also arrested on the Central Coast where police allege they found a cache of eight firearms.
“This week we’ve succeeded in demobilising a significant drug supply syndicate operating from Sydney’s southwest, but also know the tentacles of illicit activity stretch far beyond our cities,” Detective Superintendent Jason Weinstein, statewide Commander of Task Force Hawk, said.
“NSW attracts around 40 per cent of Australia’s national organised crime population.
“The sale of prohibited drugs in NSW is a lucrative market worth at least $3.7bn per year at a street level, and a root cause of the violent spate of murders we’ve recently seen.
“These arrests send a clear message to anyone involved in organised crime that we are aware of your illicit activities and will hold you accountable.”
Criminal Groups Squad Commander Superintendent Grant Taylor, said Strike Force Sugarcane investigators were now targeting those who allegedly enable serious organised crime.
“The men who we arrested earlier this week could not have facilitated their ongoing criminal exploits without the help of enablers and trusted insiders including the man before the court today,” Det Supt Taylor said.
“Most high-ranking members of that OCN have now fled overseas, are bail refused or subject to restrictive orders and conditions, so for police it is now about targeting those who enable and facilitate their offending.
“Investigators are working our way down the pyramid, and we’ve still got plenty more to come so please, watch this space,” Det Supt Taylor said.
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