Junaid Thorne: How undercover cop snared firebrand Muslim preacher
Self-styled sheik Junaid Thorne, who once told the ABC it was his destiny to become a counter-terrorism target, was brought undone on drug supply charges by an undercover police officer who he thought he could trust.
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Muslim Aboriginal preacher Mohammed Junaid Thorne is facing a lengthy jail stint after admitting to selling massive amounts of drugs to an undercover police officer who he thought he could trust.
The full story of how the self-styled sheik, who holds prayer meetings in his home and once told the ABC it was his destiny to become a counter-terrorism target, was brought undone can now be revealed after he pleaded guilty to large commercial drug supply.
Defence lawyer Abdul Saddik successfully negotiated with prosecutors to have a gun supply charge against Thorne dropped.
When contacted on Sunday Mr Saddik declined to comment as “the matter was ongoing”.
Agreed facts state Thorne, now 30, met the undercover officer in western Sydney in 2018, agreeing to regularly sell him cocaine and even supplying him with a specially encrypted mobile phone to avoid detection from authorities.
After their first deal, Thorne spoke in code and asked the officer if his associates “need more parts?” to which the undercover operative replied: “always”.
A close relationship ensued, with the pair lunching together at a restaurant in Chatswood and a shopping centre in Liverpool in between large-volume drug deals.
However, the possibility of being caught was never far from Thorne’s mind and he said he wanted to sell the cocaine over multiple meetings so if they were caught their punishment would be minimised.
“Thorne suggested the larger weights of cocaine to be supplied in the future would have to be spread across multiple meetings to avoid higher penalties if detected,” the agreed facts state.
Having won his trust, the officer asked Thorne if he could supply one kilogram of MDMA — a deal that would eventually bring about his arrest.
In the lead up, Thorne discussed with his co-accused, a 30-year-old woman, about what to write to the officer and warned her not to leave a voice message as “they have experts” who could listen to the recording and identify her voice.
The officer met Thorne to hand over the 1kg of MDMA for $34,000 in a supermarket in Newington in January last year.
Thorne even performed the role of “lookout” because he thought he had seen “undercovers”.
Thorne and the woman were arrested six months later.
The preacher refused to be interviewed after his arrest.
Thorne has pleaded guilty to supply of prohibited drug, not less than a large commercial quantity — in this case 995gm of MDMA. The maximum sentence for such offences is life imprisonment.
Thorne came under the radar of the NSW Police Terrorism Investigation squad for regular pro-Jihadi comments and his anti-Australia, anti-ASIO comments.
He was arrested in Saudi Arabia over terrorism suspicions in 2013 but was later freed with the help of the Australian government.
In 2015, he was sentenced to a minimum four months jail for travelling on a domestic flight from Perth to Sydney using the fake name Prince Bhopal.
In an interview on ABC’s 730 in 2016 he said it was his destiny to become a radical Muslim preacher and a counter-terrorism target.
“As Muslims we believe our life is predetermined for us, we believe in what’s called destiny and this is something that Allah has written for me and it’s my fate, I accept it,” he said.
He also called on authorities to investigate him.
“There have been countless accusations, allegations and authorities trying to link me to stuff, none of which have been proved, and will not be proved, because I haven’t done any of the sort,” Thorne told 730.
He will be sentenced at Parramatta District Court in October.