Irish national, 45, charged with assisting in people smuggling after allegedly helping Hussein Chamas
An Irish national allegedly spent four days driving former fugitive Hussein Chamas more than 4600km from Sydney to Arnhem Land in a bid to help smuggle the alleged drug importer out of Australia.
NSW
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An Irish national allegedly spent four days driving former fugitive Hussein Chamas more than 4600km from Sydney to Arnhem Land in a bid to help smuggle the alleged drug importer out of Australia.
The 45-year-old was arrested in the Arnhem Land town of Nhulunbuy on Sunday, a week after Chamas was found in a yacht a few hundred kilometres southeast of West Papua in the Arafura Sea.
Australian Federal Police will allege he had travelled to Sydney to pick Chamas up on January 8 – the same day Chamas walked out of the Connect Global rehab facility at Swan Bay after the centre received documents purporting to be from the NSW Supreme Court stating his bail conditions had changed.
The AFP said in a statement that he drove Chamas in the camper van through Queensland and into the Northern Territory, travelling via the Central Arnhem Rd to Nhulunbuy, the town in eastern Arnhem Land formally known as Gove.
The trip is estimated at 4680km.
They allegedly arrived in Nhulunbuy on January 11, although it remains unclear where Chamas stayed until he allegedly rendezvoused with the yacht on the night of January 25.
The alleged dodgy court paperwork said Chamas could leave the Port Stephens rehab clinic for four days.
When he didn’t return, alarms were raised by at least two parties on January 14.
By January 20, a Sydney magistrate issued an arrest warrant and the hunt for Chamas continued until Australia Day, where an Australian Border Force vessel stopped a yacht in the Arafura Sea.
Authorities allege a man fitting Chamas’ description was seen on a Nhulunbuy beach the night before, where a witness saw the man flashing a torch at a yacht.
Chamas, a long with Dutch man Thomas Goertz, 51, and UK woman Jade Sui Ying Ormiston, 42, were found on the yacht about 120 nautical miles southeast of West Papua before it was sailed back towards Australia and the trio were taken into custody about 50km off the mainland.
Chamas faced Darwin Magistrate’s Court last week, where he pleaded to be extradited to NSW. He was due to face Court on Tuesday.
Goertz and Jade Sui Ying Ormiston have been charged with people smuggling and remain before the courts.
And the Irish national was due to face Darwin Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday charged with one count of providing support for the offence of people smuggling, contrary to section 73.3A of the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth).
This offence carries a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment.
Originally published as Irish national, 45, charged with assisting in people smuggling after allegedly helping Hussein Chamas
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