Married couple arrested over huge drug haul flashed cash on social media
This Melbourne couple splashed their cash on a luxury car and lavish wedding, but the custom brokers’ lifestyle suggests they were living beyond their means. It all came crashing down this week after police arrested them in relation to a billion-dollar drug plot.
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A couple who got in over their heads after allegedly becoming involved in an international drug smuggling plot with a feared Asian crime syndicate happily showed off their wealth on social media.
Rachel Cachia and Donovan Rodrigues worked as customs brokers but their lifestyle suggested they were living beyond their means.
IT worker Stephen Francis Mizzi, 37, from Elwood, has also been charged in connection with trying to smuggle more than $1 billion worth of meth into Australia.
The Herald Sun revealed a feared drug kingpin branded Asia’s El Chapo is being hunted over the massive drug importation.
Chinese-born Tse Chi Lop is the head of the multi-billion dollar Sam Gor syndicate, which police suspect is responsible for trafficking 1.6 tonnes of ice and heroin concealed in stereo speakers from Thailand into Melbourne, seized in April.
Australian Federal Police officers swooped to arrest Ms Cachia, Mr Rodrigues and Mr Mizzi on Wednesday before charging them on Thursday.
Police believe the trio were used as pawns by serious organised criminals.
Ms Cachia and Mr Rodrigues were married in March after more than six years together, posting pictures of their luxurious wedding on Facebook.
In February last year, for Valentine’s Day, Ms Cachia posted a picture of herself with a $70,000 Jaguar XF.
“Speechless! Happy Valentines Day to me … thanks babe #hisakeeper #lovehim #jaguar,” she captioned the picture.
In the comments, the couple joked about getting engaged.
“Spoilt,” Mr Rodrigues wrote.
“Spoilt is having a diamond ring in the glove box … just saying,” Ms Cachia replied.
“Rachel = never satisfied,” he joked back.
“Nooo very satisfied babe, thank you,” she said.
The couple also regularly posted pictures of themselves on trips around Australia and internationally, most recently celebrating New Year’s Eve at Fraser Island.
The Herald Sun has been told it will be alleged they were operating at a low-level in the syndicate.
The haul was worth more than $1 billion and was enough to produce than 16 million hits, or close to a quarter of Australia’s annual illicit drug intake.
Police believe Tse has masterminded the smuggling of huge quantities of ice into Australia over more than a decade.
Tse, also a Canadian national, is based in South East Asia and moves between different countries using multiple passports.
Police will allege his syndicate funnelled cash to the trio charged yesterday in order to facilitate the distribution of methamphetamine in Australia.
Sources have told the Herald Sun the Sam Gor syndicate was strongly suspected of being behind the plot.
Thirteen search warrants were executed across several Melbourne suburbs including Darley, Sunshine West, Brooklyn, Elwood and Murrumbeena on Wednesday.
More than 140 Australian Federal Police officers seized a large number of mobile phones, computers and paperwork in the raids.
AFP Deputy Commissioner Neil Gaughan said: “We feel they (Ms Cachia, Mr Rodrigues and Mr Mizzi) have been used by an organised crime syndicate which has cultivated them to engage in the illicit activity they have undertaken.
“They used their position of trust to circumvent the border controls that exist within Australia.
“We know the people involved were probably middle to high end of the echelon in the organised crime groups.
“There are people above them, we think we know who they are, we will keep working to try and bring them to justice.”
Sam Gor is a crime syndicate formed out of five different Triad groups.
International law enforcement officials believe the gang’s revenue from methamphetamine in 2018 was at least $8 billion a year, but could actually have been much higher.
In recent years, the syndicate has overtaken Mexico’s cartels in ice trafficking in the South-East Asian region.
Police forces from Australia, North America and Europe are investigating the syndicate, with Tse the No.1 target.
Tse, who has previously been convicted of transporting heroin to the US, has been compared to Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and Colombia’s Pablo Escobar.
Australian Border Force officers found the drugs inside speakers at a container examination facility in April after anomalies were noticed during an x-ray.
The speakers were taken apart and officers discovered dozens of packages containing methamphetamine and heroin, which had been vacuum-packed and stuffed inside the stereos.
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Ms Cachia and Mr Rodrigues face the bulk of the charges, with police alleging they allowed the unauthorised movement of goods subject to customs control, to unknown locations.
All three appeared at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court yesterday charged with a string of offending in relation to the importation.
The maximum penalty for importing a commercial quantity of drugs is life imprisonment.
The trio will return to court in May next year.