Rinse and repeat: Crime gang embeds ice worth $1m in T-shirts before extracting the drug with a washing machine

In one of the more inventive methods ever seen, police allege a crime syndicate embedded $1m worth of ice in the fabric of T-shirts to smuggle it into Australia.

NSW Supreme Court has been told how almost 1kg of the drug was soaked into T-shirts which featured a “Merry and Bright” logo and can be bought online.

Exclusive: Police allege an organised crime gang embedded about $1m worth of the drug ice within the fabric of T-shirts before a team extracted it using a washing machine.

In a case that police say shows the inventive methods criminal operations use to smuggle drugs into Sydney, the NSW Supreme Court has been told how almost 1kg of the drug was soaked into the T-shirts, which featured a “Merry and Bright” logo and can be bought from online stores.

The drug-laced shirts were then sent to Australia by overseas-based organised crime figures, police allege in documents tendered to the court.

Once the garments landed in Sydney, the court was told that a team of alleged crime figures rented an Airbnb property in southwest Sydney and spent a week last October extracting the drug using a washing machine, stove burners, and other tools.

The team even arrived with a new top loader washing machine, which was still wrapped in plastic. The process was painstaking.

The drugs were embedded in a T-shirt similar to this one that can be bought online.

The syndicate allegedly used a top loader washing machine to extract the drugs.

The court was told two of the men listened to nine hours of instructions on how to extract the drug via phone and video calls with an overseas based criminal and others.

“It’s a new and novel method,” a senior police source said.

Speaking in general terms, the investigator said: “They are constantly evolving the techniques used; we’ve seen them do it in sauce bottles, shampoo, clay pots. And with technology constantly evolving, they will find another way now that we are aware of this method”.

The allegations were revealed during a failed bail application by Brandon Maseuli before Justice Stephen Rothman on May 16.

Brandon Maseuli being arrested over the drug crime.

Maseuli is facing 77 charges relating to an alleged crime spree in late 2023.

Police have accused the 27-year-old of being part of a “sophisticated” criminal group that also planned to assassinate a member of rap group OneFour and attempted to steal about $1bn worth of cocaine.

Defence barrister Ertunc Ozen SC argued his client should be released on very strict bail because he will spend a lengthy period behind bars before standing trial.

A police submission to the court said Maseuli “is a very serious risk to the community” and began planning the billion-dollar drug theft on the same day he was granted bail on another kidnapping charge.

Defence barrister Ertunc Ozen SC.

Charlton Schaafhausen has also been charged.

The police documents allege Maseuli’s group flew a drone around a Woolloomooloo recording studio in an attempt to find and assassinate members of OneFour.

The court heard Maseuli was one of six people involved in the T-shirt drug extraction plot.

In documents tendered to the court, police allege Maseuli and another man, Charlton Schaafhausen (who has also been charged), performed the drug ­extraction and were directed over the phone and video calls by Anthony Pele and two other “unknown people”.

Anthony Pele is wanted but overseas.

Brandon Maseuli being arrested over the drug crime.

Pele, 22, an associate of the Haouchar crime family, is based overseas and police want to question him over a Western Sydney shooting death.

Police arrested Maseuli on December 15 after raiding his Miller property where they seized multiple phones containing thousands of messages.

The 27-year-old was granted bail but the next day police allege that within 12 hours he obtained a new phone and used it to plan another kidnapping of a man who was holding $1bn of cocaine in an apartment.

That alleged kidnapping and cocaine heist took place in the days before Christmas in 2023 but failed when a neighbour called police after seeing armed men in balaclavas.

Maseuli is listed to face Campbelltown Local Court on June 12.
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