Olympic wrestler latest migrant drafted in hydro house scheme, lawyer says

Plucked from an impoverished farm to wrestle at the Olympics, Meraldo Ndoka says he ended up manning a hydro house after Australia’s migration scheme denied him a chance at legal work.

Olympic wrestler Meraldo Ndoka says he became part of the hydro scheme, right, because of Australia's migration laws made it hard for him to earn money legally. Pictures: Supplied

An Olympic wrestler is the latest of a string of migrants enlisted to operate hydroponic drug houses, his lawyer says, with the former athlete walking free briefly before being re-arrested on an interstate warrant.

Meraldo Ndoka, 35, was given a two-year community corrections order for cultivating marijuana and dealing with the suspected proceeds of crime at Sydney Downing Centre this week.

A police fact sheet says a suspected hydro house on Caledonian Street, Bexley, was being surveilled by the aptly-named Strikeforce Grassy in July and August 2022.

Police watched as unknown men came and left the home, took out the rubbish and picked up the mail.

Highly trained tactical officers stormed through the front door just after dark on August 29, court documents say, and searched the home but found it empty.

It took 20 minutes before the officers realised Ndoka was hiding beneath the floor – the burly wrestler refused to come up so tactical officers hauled him out.

Ndoka’s keys opened a red Mazda on a nearby street and, inside the car, police found a black satchel with $1715 cash, a fake Italian driver’s licence with his photograph under a false name and a folding knife, court documents say.

The grow house had makeshift walls or partitions with 44 large cannabis plants spread through five rooms, the court documents say.

Police estimate the value of the crop at $220,000.

Ndoka’s lawyer, Omar Juweinat, said he was just one of countless migrants who had recently been put to work in Sydney drug houses after being denied visas that would allow them to secure legal work.

“Illegal migration effectively brings in the labour force for growing cannabis,” he said.

“Some of these people being arrested had arrived just days before they ended up working in hash houses.”

QUALIFIED FOR OLYMPICS

Court documents say Ndoka grew up in an impoverished Albania which languished after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Ndoka came from a poor farming family but was selected to become a wrestler and excelled, his career high point was qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics.

His career brought him to Australia for a competition at age 26 and he decided to stay, seeing it as a land of opportunity.

But Ndoka’s student and work visas were ultimately rejected and he stayed illegally.

Ndoka, the court file says, ended up doing undocumented work in construction and taking out private loans to repair injuries from wrestling.

The high cost of living in Australia, unstable work conditions as a result of his visas and the pandemic, and the crippling loans put him under significant financial strain, the documents said.

Working in the hydro house was one of his few opportunities, he felt according to court documents.

The $1715 found in his satchel was the pay he received each fortnight manning the drug operation, documents say.

Ndoka walked free on Tuesday, after being given his community correction order, but was arrested on a South Australian extradition warrant almost immediately.

It’s understood he faced charges of marijuana cultivation in SA before coming to Sydney.

That case has yet to be determined.

Last month The Daily Telegraph revealed another migrant family had been allegedly enlisted to operate a hydro house in Bankstown.

Mr Juweinat, who also represents the mother in that case, said they were from a vulnerable European migrant background as well.

That matter remains before the courts.