As children swung and climbed and slid at Dulwich Hill’s Allison Park on a sunny summer Friday earlier this month, they didn’t realise the dramatic scenes about to unfold in front of them.
Surveillance police had been following Drummoyne man Michael Mato, 22, from his Alexandra Street unit after noticing him pick up an unusually large and full supermarket bag from his garage and place it on the back seat of the car he was driving, an 2022 Audi RS3, worth as much as $98,000.
Al Pacino in a scene from the film Scarface.Credit: Buena Vista Films
As Mato parked his car in Dulwich Hill, investigators approached. When they made themselves known, Mato was not sticking around, police say, allegedly throwing the brown bag and running.
On the go, he allegedly attempted to destroy his phone before throwing it onto train tracks.
Police will claim in court the phone had 105 messages sent through Threema, an encrypted messaging platform, and that the phone is a dedicated encrypted criminal communications device, which were outlawed in NSW under legislation passed in 2022.
Mato didn’t make it far, being tackled by police less than 300 metres away.
Detectives say that the bag contained a brick of cocaine weighing more than a kilogram, branded with an image from Al Pacino’s 1983 film Scarface.
Fourteen identical bricks, each featuring the Scarface motif, were allegedly later found inside Mato’s garage, hidden in two 15 litre Dulux paint tins and weighing a total of 14 kilograms.
Police also seized two Nissan Silvias, each worth around $70,000, suspected to be the proceeds of crime.
Mato is now facing two counts of supplying a large quantity of cocaine, a charge carrying a maximum of life imprisonment.
He was refused bail by police, and will re-appear in Burwood Local Court in April.
Police allege the cocaine was worth $22.5 million on Sydney’s streets.
“This arrest and seizure means a significant quantity of an illegal drug is now off Sydney’s streets,” Organised Crime Squad commander Detective Superintendent Peter Faux said.
“It also serves as a warning to those seeking to traffic illicit drugs in the community: the NSW Police is committed to identifying and arresting those involved in illegal activities and put them before the court,” he said.
Nominated for a slew of Academy Awards, Scarface tells the story of a poverty-stricken Cuban immigrant who becomes a cocaine kingpin in Miami.
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