Taxi drivers ‘ran cocaine delivery service across Sydney’

FOUR taxi drivers accused of running a cocaine delivery service have been arrested in dawn raids.

Taxi drivers ‘delivered cocaine to homes’

FOUR taxi drivers have been arrested accused of running a cocaine delivery service across Sydney.

Police swooped on the men — all aged in their 30s — during dawns raids at five homes in Auburn, South Granville and Guildford, seizing guns, cash and drugs.

The men are expected to be charged over the alleged criminal syndicate which police claim used taxis to deliver hundreds of one-gram cocaine deals per week to homes and nightspots throughout Sydney.

“They were using the SMS services of the drivers and accessing the customers,” Superintendent David Donohue told reporters in Sydney this morning.

“We will allege they were delivering the drugs ... right throughout Sydney from the foot of the mountains right throughout the CBD.”

Detectives from Strike Force Illino were joined in the raids by the Tactical Operations Unit, Public Order and Riot Squad and local police in the culmination of a months-long covert police operation into the alleged sophisticated drug ring.

A man in his 30s is led away handcuffed by police.

Police will allege that clients ordered cocaine using specially-coded text messages from their homes, as well as pubs and restaurants.

In the elaborate ruse, police will allege, the taxi driver would arrive with the cocaine and the client would hop into the cab where the deal would take place as the cab drives around. The driver would then drop the alleged client back at the original location.

Two men have been taken to Parramatta Police Station and two to Auburn Police Station, and all are expected to be charged later today.

Supt Donohue said customers of the cocaine syndicate should also consider themselves on notice, and prepare for a possible knock on the door this weekend.

He would not go into further details of the alleged drug ring, as the matters will be before the courts, but said the men’s vehicles had also been impounded pending further examination.

Originally published as Taxi drivers ‘ran cocaine delivery service across Sydney’